98a. Pilkington, Matthew.
A / DICTIONARY / OF / PAINTERS / FROM THE REVIVAL OF
THE ART TO THE PRESENT PERIOD; / BY / THE REV. M.
PILKINGTON, A. M. / A / NEW EDITION, / WITH CONSIDERABLE
ADDITIONS, AN APPENDIX, AND AN INDEX; / BY /
HENRY FUSELI, R. A. / STAT SUA CUIQUE DIES: BREVE ET
INREPARABILE TEMPUS / OMNIBUS EST VITAE: SED
FAMAM EXTENDERE FACTIS, / HOC VIRTUTIS OPUS. VIRGIL.
AENEID. LIB. X. / LONDON: / PRINTED FOR J.
WALKER; WILKIE AND ROBINSON; R. LEA; J. STOCKDALE;
SCATCHERD / AND LETTERMAN; CUTHELL AND MARTIN;
VERNOR, HOOD, AND SHARPE; LONGMAN, / HURST, REES,
AND ORME; CADELL AND DAVIES; LACKINGTON, ALLEN,
AND CO.; / BLACK, PARRY, AND KINGSBURY; W. MILLER;
J. HARDING; J. MAWMAN; J. MURRAY; / CROSBY AND CO.;
J. FAULDER; AND J. JOHNSON AND CO. / 1810.
4to. Title page ([i]); dedication, dated `Dublin, 1770' ([iii]); preface
([v]-xii); bibliography ([xiii]-xiv); glossary ([xv]-xx); editor's note (1
leaf); note to new edition (1 leaf); text ([1]-658); index ([659]-78).
The title page of this copy is inscribed: `Presented by C. B. Ogle
Esq. to G. Hayter, 1813.' The bookplate is inscribed: `To / Angelo C.
Hayter, / From his affectionate Father, / Sir George Hayter. / 1864.'
Matthew Pilkington (1700?-1784) was born in Dublin and educated at
Trinity College there. He became the vicar of Donobate and Portrahan,
county Dublin, about 1722. His Dictionary of Painters was the first such
work in English.
Pilkington speaks of his work and of painting in general in his
preface:
I persuade myself, that an endeavour to acquire a taste for the polite arts;
a desire to obtain a thorough knowledge of them; and a zeal to diffuse that
knowledge more extensively through these kingdoms; cannot appear an improper
employment for the leisure hours of an Ecclesiastic. [P. vii]
As painting is the representation of nature, every spectator, whether
judicious or otherwise, will derive a certain degree of pleasure from seeing
nature happily and beautifully imitated; but, where taste and judgment are
combined in a spectator who examines a design conceived by the genius of a
Raphael, and touched into life by his hand, such a spectator feels a superior,
and enthusiastic, a sublime pleasure, whilst he minutely traces the merits of
the work, and the eye of such a connoisseur wanders from beauty to beauty,
till he feels himself rising gradually from admiration to ecstasy. [Pp. viii-ix]
It is only by a frequent and studious inspection into the excellencies of
the artists of the first rank, that a true taste can be established; for, by being
attentively conversant with the elevated ideas of others, our own ideas imperceptibly
become refined. [P. xi]
This book has a long publishing history. It was first issued in
London in 1770. There was a new edition, emended by James Barry, the
painter, in 1798; another with additions by John Wolcott, M.D., in
1799; one in 1805, and again in 1810 with additions by Henry Fuseli, the
painter and keeper of the schools of the Royal Academy; this was corrected
by Watkins for an edition of 1824; in 1829 Richard Davenport
made additions; in 1840 Alan Cunningham did the same; in 1851 there
was a new issue of the Davenport version; and finally in both 1852 and
1857 Davenport and Cunningham combined forces on editions.
Fuseli points out, in a note to his 1805 edition, the additions of
articles he made and his emendations. In his 1810 edition Fuseli says he
had added over three hundred names, especially of the Spanish school.
It was the 1810 edition which Jefferson ordered for the University
in the section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the want
list, but it was not supplied. It is worth noting that half a century later,
in 1871, Lowndes was still saying that the 1810 edition was the "best."
The University's present copy has come into the collections recently, the
gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va.
*ND35.P6.1810
