THE GALLERY OF ENGRAVINGS. EDITED BY MRS. MILNER, AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF DEAN MILNER," "HISTORICAL SKETCHES," ETC. SECOND SERIES. PETER JACKSON, LATE FISHER, SON, & CO. THE CAXTON PRESS, ANGEL STREET, ST. MARTIN'S-LE-GRAND, LONDON; 11, POST-OFFICE PLACE, LIVERPOOL; 93, PICCADILLY, MANCHESTER. 70. N. 108. 23. PREFACE. THIS age, as it has been well observed, is " THE AGE OF ENGRAVING;" nor is this to be accounted one of the least important among the many advantageous circumstances which distinguish the present times. Through the instrumentality of the Engraver, the glorious creations of the great painters of bygone ages have been endowed with that perpetuity which, by reason of the perishable nature of the materials employed, seemed to be, of necessity, denied to them. No longer can we say— "When the last hue is from thy canvas fled, Its memory gone then, Raffaelle, thou art dead!" for by the exquisite art of the Engraver, the great works of Raffaelle and Titian, and other "great heirs of fame," are preserved among us, in all the beauty of their graceful proportions; and in the freshness with which they first glowed in the light of a southern sun. Nor is perpetuity the only excellence which the productions of the greatest masters have received at the hands of the Engraver. By his art they have been so multiplied, that the forms of grace and beauty which lived "on the rich canvas or the breathing scroll," are no longer confined to the galleries of nobles and princes, or the cabinets of the great and the wealthy, but are rendered familiar among us, and shed their graceful influence in the ordinary "homes of England." The vast diffusion of education which has taken place of late years, has enabled all classes of persons to value, and in some degree to appreciate according to their real worth, these master-pieces of art; and the principles of a just, and noble, and refined taste, have been thus brought home to our domestic hearths. The taste for the fine arts thus induced, has led, as a natural consequence, to a desire on the part of the people of England to become more intimately acquainted with the works of their own native artists; and here again the Engraver has supplied the want which was so generally felt. In the work now presented to the public, authentic Engravings-executed in the highest style of art-of the portraits, landscapes, architectural drawings, and more imaginative compositions, of our great ENGLISH PAINTERS, are offered at a cost so trifling, as to be within the reach of almost all classes of society. Of the execution of the Literary portion of this work, it does not become the Editor to speak. She may, however, observe, with respect to the contributors whose names are, in the following pages, prefixed to their compositions, that they have acquired a celebrity which may well be regarded as a guarantee for the value of their productions; and she would venture to express her hope, that both by its Engravings and its Letter-press, this series of a work which has already received the stamp of public approbation, will be found worthy of the liberal patronage which was bestowed upon the first series of THE GALLERY OF ENGRAVINGS. |