MAY 317 



possessed by most -women — to arrange these dates of 

 the painters' lives, overlapping each other as they do, 

 on the spur of the moment, in a way that is of the 

 smallest use for judging the merits of the pictures, and, 

 above all, the mind of the man that shines through his 

 work. 



One should know the date of a picture, as in biogra- 

 phy everything depends upon the age at which incidents 

 occur. Men of genius often do at t"venty what is usu- 

 ally not done >at forty ; so every now and then a painter 

 anticipates by centuries the thought or the execution of 

 future ages. 



In accordance with the taste of her day, Maria 

 Farquhar gives five double -columned pages of her little 

 book to Eaphael, and half a single column to Botticelli. 

 In this she did not differ from her contemporaries, for, 

 as Mr. Hewlett says in ' Earthwork out of Tuscany ' : 

 ' Seriously, where in criticism do you learn of an earlier 

 painter than Perugino until you come to our day ? And 

 where now do you get the raptures over the Carracci and 

 Domenichino, and Guercino, and the rest of them, which 

 the last century expended upon their unthrifty soil ? 

 Euskin found Botticelli ; yes, and Giotto. Roscoe never 

 so much as mentions either.' 



I have four little daintUy printed volumes published 

 in 1834 — an early work of the well-known authoress, 

 Mrs. Jameson, who has written so much on Italian art. 

 These books are not without interest to the student of 

 life, art, or art criticisms. The last two volumes are a 

 reprint of a still earlier work, which had a success in its 

 day, called 'The Diary of an Bnnuy6e.' The book is 

 still interesting to me, not only for its dimodAe style, 

 but also as being a kind of 'Pot-Pourri ' of the day. 

 This ' Diary of an Ennuy6e ' contains an account of the 

 author's stay at Florence, which is my reason °or 



