SKETCHES OF THE "OLD MASTERS" IN 

 PAINTING.* 



There is every reason to believe that the art of painting was 

 carried to a high degree of perfection by the ancient Greeks. 

 We cannot judge of this by any specimen paintings that have 

 been preserved, for these are things that do not endure. But the 

 ancient writers say that Grecian art was equally advanced in 

 painting and sculpture ; and in regard to the latter there have 

 been found in late years, buried in the debris of cities and villas, 

 statues and groups in marble that would substantiate the most 

 extravagant claims. We are authorized to conclude therefore 

 that their claims in regard to painting were not exaggerated. 



In further corroboration there is the remarkable, almost mirac- 

 ulous, preservation of the frescoes of Pompeii. This was a 

 small provincial town of Italy, a place little likely to have even 

 a fair sample of ancient art ; yet there have been opened up in 

 this buried city frescoes and wall paintings that have been studies 

 and models for painters from the day they were discovered. 



But with the incursions of the northern barbarians and the 

 closing in of the dark ages, all art culture absolutely died out, 

 and until about the year 1300 painting was one of the lost arts. 

 It had to be re-discovered and worked up again to perfection by 

 slow and toilsome labors, as much as if it had never existed. We 

 can best point out this growth by sketching, though ever so 

 briefly, the lives and work of those who have been laborers in 

 this field ; and first we must mention, 



Giotto. GIOTTO DI BORDONE was born near Florence in 1276. 

 His occupation as a boy was to tend sheep. When ten years old 



* Written in 1875 for the Catalogue of Powers Art Gallery, Rochester, N. Y. 



