of the Moderns have done in Thefe Parts of Painting I profefs I dare not determine which has the Preference. It would be a fine Amusement, or rather a Noble, and a Ufeful Employment for a Gentleman to collect, and compare the many fine Thoughts, and Expreffions, on One Side, and the Other: For Me to do it here would be too Tedious, and too great a Task, having already undertaken what will coft me More Pains, and Time than I intended, or perhaps is fit for me to bestow this way. Whether even This would end the Dispute is Uncertain; But as the Matter stands at prefent, allowing an Equality in these last mentioned Parts of Painting, and an Advantage to the Modern in Some others, the Superiority of the Ancients in Drawing, Grace, and Greatnefs determines in Favour of Them

Another Part of History no less worthy

worthy a Gentleman's Confideration than neceffary to a Connoiffeur, is that of the Lives of the particular Masters. When we reflect upon the Vigorous Sallies which Some of the Species have made, whereby they have as it were connected Ours with that of the next Order of Beings above us we must naturally defire to have a more exact Account of every Step they made towards that Glorious Diftinction: This alfo will be of Ufe to Our Selves, and help to excite Us to do something, whereby We also may be distinguish'd with Honour, and our Memories be Sweet to Pofterity.

As in reading the Lives of the Great Captains, and Statesmen we are instructed in the Hiftory of Their Times, and Their Own, and Neighbouring Nations; In those of Philofophers, and Divines we fee the State of Learning, and Religion, So in the Lives of the Paint

ers we fee the Hiftory of the Art; and I believe there has been as many Accounts, of thefe Great Men who have done fo much Honour to Humane Nature, and many of them as well written, as of any Clafs of Men whatsoever.

The

Le Vite dei Pittori e de Scultori co' Ritratti, defcritte in tre Tomi da Giorgio Vafari Pittore Aretino. Firenze 1586 Bolog. 1647. 4to.

Le Maraviglie dell'Arte, Overo delle Vite de 'Pittori Veneti, e dello Stato, in due Parti dal Cav. Carlo Ridolfi. Venezia 1648. 4to.

Felfina Pittrice: Vite de 'Pittori Bolognefi compofte dal Conte Carlo Cefare Malvafia, Lib. 4. in 2 Tomi, co' Ritratti de 'Pittori Bolog. 1678. 4to.

Le Vite de 'Pittori, & Architetti dal 1572 fino al 1640, fioriti in Roma, dal Cav. Gio. Baglioni Roma, 1642, & 1649.

Le Vite de Pittori, de 'Scultori, de gli Architetti Moderni Scritte da Gio. Pietro Bellorio.

Roma. 1672. 4to.

Parte Prima

Notitia de Profeffori del Difegno da Cimabue in quà dal Filippo Baldinucci. in feveral Volumes Printed at Florence at feveral times, the First Anno 1681.

Abcedario Pittorico nel quale compendiofamente sono defcritte le Patrie, i Maeftri, ed i Tempi ne quali fiorirono circa 4000 Profeffori di Pittura, di Scultura, e di Architettura da Fr. Pel. Ant. Orlandi. Bolog. 1704. 4to,

Entretiens fur les Vies, & fur les Ouvrages des plus Excellens Peintres Anciens & Moderns. par Filibien. Tom. 1. Paris 1666. Tom, 2. 1672. 4to. Reprimè Paris 1685. Amft. &vo.

Aca

The General Idea I have of those Excellent Men, I mean of the Principal of them, Such as thofe of whom I have given an Hiftorical, and Chronological Lift at the end of my Former Book is this, They were Moft of them Men of Fine, Natural Parts, and Some of them went very far into Learning, and Other Sciences, particularly Mufick, and Poetry; Many of them have received the Honour of Knighthood, and Some have Entail'd Nobility on their Pofterity; Moft of them advanc'd their Fortunes very confiderably, They have Generally been in great Favour with their Soveraigns, Or at leaft were much Efteem'd, and Honour'd by Men of the First Quality; Liv'd in

Academia Nobiliffima Artis Pictoria Joachimi Sandrart, a Stockan Nornub. 1683. fol.

Abrege de les Vies des Peintres par M. de Piles. Paris 1715.

In the English Tranflation of the Art of Painting by C. A. du Frefney, the Lives of the Painters are abridg'd by Mr. Grahme. Lond. 1716.

Great

Great Reputation, and Dy'd much Lamented: Several of them were remarkably Fine Gentlemen, and if any of them were not so, they were not Sordid, Low, Vicious Creatures. Correggio was an Obfcure Man whilft he liv'd, but is one of the Greatest Inftances of a Genius that the World ever faw; He was Obfcure, not Vicious. Annibale Caracci took more Pleasure in his Painting than in the Gaieties of a Court, or the Converfation, or Friendship of the Great, which with a fort of Stoical, and perhaps a mixture of a Cynical Pride he despis'd, but he had a Greatnefs of Mind that pleads effectually in his behalf, and compels us to overlook his Faults, which were much owing to his natural Melancholy. The Hiftories of Rafaelle. Lionardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titiano, Ginlio Romano, Guido, Rubens, VanDyck, and Sir Peter Lely, (to name

no