ANECDOTES OF PAINTERS, ENGRAVERS, Sculptors and Architects, AND CURIOSITIES OF ART. BY SHEARJASHUB SPOONER, A. B., M. D., AUTHOR OF “A BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL DICTIONARY OF PAINTERS, ENGRAVERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS, FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES.” IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. New York: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY G. P. PUTNAM & COMPANY, 10 PARK PLACE. 1853. PREFACE. This work is not a mere compilation, or republication of anecdote. It will be found to contain much original matter, and much of the most interesting and instructive portions of the history of art. For a list of authorities, the reader is referred to the author’s Dictionary of Painters, etc., and for a convenient reference, to the Index at the end of vol. iii. The author has studied his subject _con amore_, for many years, and has gathered abundant materials for three more volumes, should these be favorably received. But he fears lest in these romance-loving days, the recital of the trials, misfortunes, achievements and exaltations of those men of genius and fine sensibilities, to whom the world is indebted for the creation and development of the most beautiful arts, will fail to arrest the attention or move the heart. Although it does not become a man to prate of himself, yet the author trusts he will be pardoned when he speaks of his _labors_ and their _object_. For a long period, his labors have been directed to the great object of the restoration and publication of Napoleon’s magnificent works, the Musée Français and the Musée Royal, a notice of which may be found in vol. iii., page 302, of this work. He trusts he may soon be able to present the first numbers to the public. These, and his other achieved undertakings, have made his life one of the most untiring industry. In order to find time for these enterprises, and still attend to the calls of his profession, he has been obliged to deprive himself of repose and relaxation; and during the five years he was engaged in publishing Boydell’s Illustrations of Shakspeare, and in preparing his Dictionary for the press, he spent but one evening out of his study, except those of the Sabbath, relinquishing his toil only at midnight, to be resumed at dawn.