Nor can we ever rid ourselves entirely of the views of our own time and personality, and here, perhaps, is the worst enemy of knowledge. The clearest proof of this is this: as soon as history approaches our century and our worthy selves we find everything more ‘interesting’; in actual fact it is we who are more interested.

Jacob Burckhardt, Reflections on History, 1872

Preferring, as their [art-historians] practice is, mere abstract theories to practical examination, it is their wont to look at a picture as if it were a mirror, in which, as a rule, they see nothing but the reflection of their own minds.

Giovanni Morelli, Italian Painters, 1890

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