[90] I wrote this essay on Longhi at a time when I hoped to be able to illustrate my work on Gozzi profusely from the painter's sketch-book. This scheme had to be abandoned owing to difficulties connected with the proper reproduction of Longhi's drawings by photography. But should any of my readers be interested in the details of Gozzi's life, I counsel them to make a careful study of Longhi's works at Venice, and more especially of the deeply-interesting sketch-book at the Museo Civico. Those who can read between the lines of original drawings will find this book a real assistance toward the understanding of Venetian society in the last century. The moral purity and the moderation of the artist give value to his transcripts from the life he saw around him.

[91] G. B. Tiepolo; b. 1692, d. 1769. Antonio Canale, or Canaletti; b. 1697, d. 1768. Pietro Longhi; b. 1702, d. about 1780. Francesco Guardi; b. 1713, d. 1793.

[92] This is the bias of our scientific age. We do not want idealism, however meritorious—the idealism, for example, of the Caracci—the idealism which is supplied in academies. What we demand is a transcript from life or a piercing arrow from the genius of an epoch. We are keen, and rightly keen for documents of art, which hold up mirrors of an age in its external presentment, or betray the secret of its spiritual qualities.

[93] See V. Lazari, Elogio di Pietro Longhi. Venezia, 1862.

[94] I have followed Lazari above. But examination of the Pisani pedigree (published for the Nozze Giusti-Giustiniani, Rovigo, Tip. Minelliana, 1887) shows that none of the Doge's sons was Procuratore di S. Marco, and that none of them had a son who died before marriage. The only Procuratore Pisani of this period was Giorgio Pisani (1739-1811), of the branch surnamed In Procuratia. He played a prominent part in the political history of the last days of the Venetian Republic. But he also had no son who can be connected with Lazari's story regarding the foundation of the Academy. I am obliged, therefore, to suppose that Lazari's account, though substantially correct as to the existence of the Academy in question, was based on a confused tradition regarding members of the Pisani family.

[95] The picture now hangs on the wall of Mme. Pisani's drawing-room in the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal of Venice. I may add, with regard to the signature, that the uncontested frescoes at the Sagredo Palace are signed Pietro Longo, and not Longhi.

[96] The eldest of these children was born in 1753, and may have been about seven when the picture was painted.