Years have passed since the second edition of this book. But as most of
this time has been taken up with the writing of my "Drawings of the
Florentine Painters," it has, in a sense, been spent in preparing me to
make this new edition. Indeed, it is to that bigger work that I must
refer the student who may wish to have the reasons for some of my
attributions. There, for instance, he will find the intricate Carli
question treated quite as fully as it deserves. Jacopo del Sellajo is
inserted here for the first time. Ample accounts of this frequently
entertaining tenth-rate painter may be found in articles by Hans
Makowsky, Mary Logan, and Herbert Horne.
The most important event of the last ten years, in the study of Italian
art, has been the rediscovery of an all but forgotten great master,
Pietro Cavallini. The study of his fresco at S. Cecilia in Rome, and of
the other works that readily group themselves with it, has illuminated
with an unhoped-for light the problem of Giotto's origin and
development. I felt stimulated to a fresh consideration of the subject.
The results will be noted here in the inclusion, for the first time, of
Cimabue, and in the lists of paintings ascribed to Giotto and his
immediate assistants.