Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), May 31, 1845, vol. 1, no. 22, p. ??

[page 345, column 1, continued:]

A Treatise on the Knowledge necessary to Amateurs in Pictures, — Translated and abridged front the French of M. Francis Zavier de Baffin, first stipendiary member of the Royal Academy of Brussels iu the class of sciences, &c. By Robert White.

It contains, indeed, so much of that kind of practical information whin amateurs must acquire, either through some such aid, or through the more tedious path of their own individual experience, and at the same time affords to persons of more matured taste such an insight into the state of connoisseurship on the continent, that it is to be wondered that [column 2:] no one has, until now, endeavored to make it more generally acceptable by means of an English version. Although Mr. Burtin's work, which was published in 1808, at Brussels, cannot now be considered as new, and makes no pretension to the character of a profound disquisition on the art of paintings, yet no publication of a previous or later date, addressed itself so directly to the wants and wishes of amateurs, or supplies so compendious a general view of the subject of which it treats.

This little volume contains plates after the following paintings.

I. Cupid Shaping his Bow. — From Correggio or Parmegiano.

II. The Adoration of the Shepherds. — From Pœlemburg.

III. Fruit Piece. — From Ean Oeist.

IV. Village Festival. — From Teniers:

The principal subjects of the Treatise are as follows.

Of the qualities which are required to make a good picture. How to judge pictures. How to judge whether a picture is in good preservation or not. How to know and appreciate copies. Of the manner of analyzing and describing pictures. Of the general schools of painting. On the causes of the characteristics which distinguish the different schools from each other. Of the classification of pictures according to their subjects. On the causes of the superiority of the 16th and 17th centuries over those of the present century. Of the different methods of cleaning pictures and of restoring them. On the public galleries of Paris, Vienna, Dresden, Duseldorf and Munich.