TO SUBSCRIBERS.
vii
This addition to the Work is as indispensably
necessary to its completion, as it is due to the
owners of such pictures as are omitted in it.
It may be proper here to state, that the
proposed Supplement will be confined to the
objects already stated, and no other master’s
productions will be noticed, excepting inci-
dentally, as having reference to those already
given; for as the Work comprises a brief
biography and a catalogue of the pictures of
all the first masters of the Flemish, Dutch,
and French schools, it would be superfluous to
extend it to those of a second class, although
many Painters in that grade have occasionally
produced pictures equal in merit to their ac-
knowledged superiors. It was originally the
intention of the Writer to have given a similar
Work on the most eminent of the Italian
masters, and some little progress was made in
it, conjointly with the Dutch and Flemish
schools; but the growing extent of the latter
very soon absorbed the whole attention of the
Writer, and extinguished all inclination to
pursue it.
It would, however, give him the greatest
satisfaction to see such a Work commenced by
some persons of experienced knowledge of the
Italian schools, for the undertaking would re-
vii
This addition to the Work is as indispensably
necessary to its completion, as it is due to the
owners of such pictures as are omitted in it.
It may be proper here to state, that the
proposed Supplement will be confined to the
objects already stated, and no other master’s
productions will be noticed, excepting inci-
dentally, as having reference to those already
given; for as the Work comprises a brief
biography and a catalogue of the pictures of
all the first masters of the Flemish, Dutch,
and French schools, it would be superfluous to
extend it to those of a second class, although
many Painters in that grade have occasionally
produced pictures equal in merit to their ac-
knowledged superiors. It was originally the
intention of the Writer to have given a similar
Work on the most eminent of the Italian
masters, and some little progress was made in
it, conjointly with the Dutch and Flemish
schools; but the growing extent of the latter
very soon absorbed the whole attention of the
Writer, and extinguished all inclination to
pursue it.
It would, however, give him the greatest
satisfaction to see such a Work commenced by
some persons of experienced knowledge of the
Italian schools, for the undertaking would re-