hand, but upon close research, conducted with the hope of making this work virtually an original authority—their facts being derived from the latest monographs in all languages on the several painters and schools, from the art periodicals of many countries, and from autobiographical memoranda and other original material. The latest catalogues of all the great art museums of the world, and of many private collections, have also been carefully collated, so that the information given is the best and fullest accessible up to the date of publication.
The method of arrangement of the Cyclopedia is believed to be especially practical, intelligible, and convenient. The biographical and descriptive articles are combined under a single alphabet; a novel plan enabling any reader, with no knowledge of a well-known painting other than the name, to turn to it directly, and trace its history back to its author. A simple cross-reference system also enables the reader of the biographical articles to tell at a glance what works of each artist are treated at length, the italicizing of a single word in the name of a picture showing that under that word a separate article upon it will be found.
The bibliography appended to each article is such as will guide the reader to further and more minute investigation than would be possible in any book of reference; even, it may be said, to an exhaustive study of the whole literature of the topic. It embraces, besides English works and periodicals, those in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Danish.
In the illustration of the work, nothing has been spared that could make it valuable and really representative. The articles contain portraits of prominent artists, living and dead, fac-similes of their monograms and signatures, outline sketches of the important pictures of the older masters (intended as aids to the
