PREFACE
The first edition of "Bryan's Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers" was published in 1816, and since that time it has held its place without a rival as the most complete and trustworthy authority on the facts and lives of the painters and engravers with whom it deals. In 1849 it was revised by Mr. J. Stanley, and subsequently in 1876 a Supplement was prepared by Mr. H. Ottley. Between that time and 1884 not only had it become necessary to add a very considerable number of names, but the whole range of artistic knowledge and criticism had undergone most important and far-reaching changes owing to the researches of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Milanesi, Morelli, Bertolotti and others on the lives and works of the Italian painters; to those of Kramm, Michiels, Fétis, Havard, Hymans, Van den Branden, Weale, and Siret on the Dutch and Flemish painters; to those of Passavant, Waagen, Förster, Meyer, Bode, Woltmann, Schlie, Riegel, and Von Reber on the painters of Germany and other lands; and to those of the late Sir William Stirling Maxwell and Señor Madrazo on the art and artists of Spain. The edition issued in Parts from 1884–9 under the editorship of Mr. R. E. Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong was consequently to a great extent a new work, and extended to almost double the size of its predecessor; a considerable number of engravers especially having been added.
During the fourteen years which have intervened many more names have unfortunately become eligible for inclusion, and further researches have brought to light new facts, while fresh attributions and the transposition of numerous pictures have made much alteration necessary. In this volume, the first of five of which the new edition will consist, will thus be found seventy-two new biographies specified below, whilst upwards of six hundred corrections and alterations necessitated by the march of time have been introduced into the other lives.
The most notable of the new articles are those on Jacopo, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, contributed by Mr. Roger E. Fry; Giotto (Bondone) by Mr. F. Mason Perkins, his latest biographer; two important contributions on Altdorfer and Blake by Mr. Oldmeadow; Burne-Jones, Vicat Cole, Sidney Cooper, Sir F. Burton by Mr. Malcolm Bell; Mark Antony and Ansdell by Mr. Dibdin, the chief authority on the Liverpool School; Dirk Bouts by Mr. Weale; Arnold Böcklin by Mr. G. Ravenscroft Dennis; Bellin by Mr. Elliot Stock; David Cox by Mr. Arthur B. Chamberlain of the Birmingham Art Gallery; Bonheur, Ford Madox Brown, Cosway, Constant, Calderon, Beardsley
