Italian Paintings 1250-1450: In the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2004. Softbound. VG. Color illustrated wraps. 556 pp. Profusely illustrated in bw and color. A massive tome, with substantial scholarship and a boatload of illustrations. 94 items are illustyrated in color, with countless additional color and BW close-ups or related illustrations. Contents as follows: John G. Johnson and the Italian paintings collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art -- Catalogue / with conservation notes by Carl Brandon Strehlke and Mark S. Tucker -- Appendix I: documents -- Appendix II: punch marks. "When the Philadelphia lawyer John G. Johnson began to collect art in the late nineteenth (truncated) century, he made Italian paintings from the early Renaissance a specialty. Eventually Johnson bequeathed his distinguished collection to the City of Philadelphia, and it is now housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." "Although there have been several catalogues of these paintings, including one by Bernhard Berenson in 1913, Carl Brandon Strehlke, Adjunct Curator of the Johnson Collection, has prepared the first complete scholarly examination. His discussion of such art historical questions as attribution, iconography, and patronage is complemented by the technical study of the paintings he conducted with Mark S. Tucker, the Museum's Vice Chairman of Conservation and Senior Conservator of Paintings." "Strehlke's introduction sheds new light on Johnson's collecting and traces the history of the acquisition, conservation, and installation of the John G. Johnson and Philadelphia Museum of Art paintings. Subsequent entries situate detailed discussions of the pictures within the context of the artists' biographies. All the paintings are furnished with a full description, technical report, provenance, art historical commentary, discussion of related works, comparative illustrations, and bibliography. This extensively illustrated book also provides an appendix of punch marks and a bibliography of some 2,500 entries."--Jacket. (Inventory #: 101355)