book, are but small matters compared with the agreement one finds on
essential things; I may instance particularly the stress laid on the
observation of nature. Whether the artist chooses to depict the present,
the past, or to express an abstract ideal, he must, if his work is to
live, found it on his own experience of nature. But he must at every
step also refer to the past. He must find the road that the great ones
have made, remembering that the problems they solved were the same that
he has before him, and that now, no less than in Dürer's time, "art is
hidden in nature: it is for the artist to drag her forth."

GEORGE CLAUSEN.




NOTE


This little volume, it need hardly be said, does not aim at being
complete, in the sense of representing all the artists who have written
on art. It is hoped, however, that the sayings chosen will be found
fairly representative of what painters and sculptors, typical of their
race and time, have said about the various aspects of their work. In
making the collection, I have had recourse less to famous comprehensive
treatises and expositions of theory like those of Leonardo and of
Reynolds, than to the more intimate avowals and working notes contained
in letters and diaries, or recorded in memoirs. The selection of these
has entailed considerable research; and in tracing what was often by no
means easy to find, I wish to acknowledge the kind assistance,
especially, of M. Raphael Petrucci, M. Louis Dimier, and Mr. Tancred