tinguish the individual touch of the artist he is studying,
can perceive the creative intention even in his less happy
achievements, but he does not stop at the mere thought,
the suggestions given by the illustration; in his disci-
plined imagination he recreates the design as a whole in
the exact decorative terms of the artist. And who shall
say that the pleasures of a trained imagination thus
stimulated are not genuine aesthetic pleasures?

In the Lists now published I have therefore been led
to include not only pictures which the artists painted
with more or less assistance, but such as were turned out
in their studies from their designs, and even copies as well,
providing they faithfully transcribe lost works.

To distinguish such works from absolutely autograph
pictures, I have adopted a series of signs which I enclose
in brackets after the subject of the picture. These I must
explain.

A question-mark does not mean that I expect the
picture necessarily to turn out to be by the painter in
whose list it is included. The intention is rather to pro-
voke a discussion which might not arise if the picture
were relegated to the limbo of anonymity, and to point
out, as far as I can, the most fruitful line of inquiry.

It would have been easy to omit the pictures I have
attributed with a question-mark, casting them out from
the garden like worthless weeds, and my reputation would
perhaps gain in certain circles had I done so. But it
seems more generous to expose one's self to the risk of
disparagement than to fail to call attention to the most
likely affiliations of uncertain pictures. Abstention is
safe, but sterile. Only, care must be taken to reject
without mercy those attributions which are merely
happy thoughts or bright guesses, and to admit only such
as, even if not entirely satisfactory, are based on the
fullest information and on the truest idea of the artist
available at the moment.

Even unquestioned attributions are not trademarks,
although collectors and dealers would like them to be.
They are stepping-stones rather than goals. None of my

-v-