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248
Hereditary Genius
the relationships of men of the classes F or E of artistic gifts. It would
be interesting to know the number of art students in Europe during
the last three or more centuries, from whom the forty-two names I
have selected are the most illustrious. It is assuredly very great, but it
hardly deserves much pains in investigation, because it would afford a
minimum, not a true indication of the artistic superiority of the forty-
two over the rest of the world: the reason being, that the art students
are themselves a selected class. Lads follow painting as a profession
usually because they are instinctively drawn to it, and not as a career
in which they were placed by accidental circumstances. I should
estimate the average of the forty-two painters to rank far above the
average of class F, in the natural gifts necessary for high success in
art.
In the following table I have included ten individuals that do not find
a place in the list of forty-two: namely, Isaac Ostade; Jacopo and
Gentile Bellini; Badille, Agostino Caracci, William Mieris; David
Teniers; W. Van der Velde the elder; and Francesco da Ponte, both
the elder and the younger. The average rank of these men is far
above that of a modern Academician, though I have not ventured to
include them in the most illustrious class. I have kept Claude in the
latter, notwithstanding recent strictures, on account of his previously
long-established reputation.
TABLE I.
SUMMARY OF RELATIONSHIPS OF 26 GREAT PAINTERS
GROUPED INTO 14 FAMILIES.
One relation (or two in family).
Allegri
S.
2. Ostade
B.
(Corleggio, see Allegri.)
Potter
F.
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