PREFACE
This book has grown out of lectures which were delivered at the Cleveland Art Museum in 1919–20. There I had ideal hearers, beginners who wanted to learn and were willing to follow a serious discussion. Since I aim at the same sort of a reader now, I have only slightly retouched and amplified the original manuscript. This is frankly a beginner’s book. I have had to omit whatever might confuse the novice, including many painters inherently delightful. Controversial problems for the same reason have been when possible avoided. When, however, I have had to cope with such, I have depended more on my own eyes and judgment than on the written words of others. But the latest literature has also been used, so that even the adept should here and there find something to his purpose.
For opinions on contested points, I have given my authority or personal reason in notes, which, in order not to clutter up the text, are printed at the end. By the same token, hints on reading and private study are tucked away in the last pages where they will not bother readers who do not need or want them. While I hope the book will be welcome in the classroom, I have had as much in mind the intelligent traveller in Europe and the private student. Throughout I have had before me the kind of introduction to Italian painting that would have been helpful to me thirty years ago in those days of bewildered enthusiasm when I was making my Grand Tour.