When the Philadelphia lawyer John G. Johnson began to collect art in the late nineteenth century, he defined contemporary taste by acquiring Italian paintings from the early Renaissance. He eventually donated 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 dating and attribution combines extensive archival research with information he gained through his technical study of the paintings 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 Philadelphia, paintings. Subsequent chapters situate detailed discussions of the pictures within the context of richly detailed 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.

Historians of Italian art will welcome this exhaustive catalogue of the Italian paintings that formed part of a large collection donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1917. Strehlke provides a lengthy introduction, giving the story of Johnson's life, his collecting (in part with the help of Bernard Berenson), his friendships with well- known collectors and scholars, and the conservation history of the Italian paintings as a group. The remainder of the massive tome (2" high, it measures 10.25x12.25") contains the catalogue, which is notable for its thoroughness and depth of research. The entries include lengthy technical notes, followed by a discussion of the painting's subject and relationship to other works. Each entry contains a color plate of the painting, along with numerous b&w plates of related works. The volume contains a comprehensive bibliography.
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