PREFACE. AN historical account of the several Italian schools of painting is a desideratum of the present day. It is indeed much to be lamented that the publication of a work of this description, projected some few years since, under the title, The Italian School of Design, should have been discontinued, since it came from a person better qualified than, perhaps, any other in the country, to do justice to the undertaking. One number only appeared, and unfortunately on so extensive and costly a scale, that while it could not but be regarded as a valuable and highly ornamental addition to our stock of literature, yet it was in a great degree ill calculated for convenience, and indeed for the use of the public at large it is hoped these objections at least mill be found to have been avoided in the volume here pre- sented. This book contains a catalogue of the . painters in each of the schools of the several states of Italy, arranged according to the names of the masters under whom they studied, and the time at which they lived the places where their chief works may be found is also given, together with the year of their birth or death. To each catalogue is subjoined, a compendious history of the school, pointing out the distinctions of the various styles and manners of painting, which successively prevailed and interspersed with some biographical anecdotes of the artists themselves. A few observations on the present state of this art have been added, and a short account of sculp- ture as related to the art of painting....