"US distributors: Frederick A. Praeger ... New York."

Drawings by the great Italian Mannerist painter and poet Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) are extremely rare. This important and beautiful publication brings together for the first time nearly all of the sixty drawings attributed to this leading draftsman of the 16th century. Each drawing is illustrated in color, discussed in detail, and shown with many comparative photographs. Bronzino's technical virtuosity as a draftsman and his mastery of anatomy and perspective are vividly apparent in each stroke of the chalk, pen, or brush. The younger generations of Florentine artists particularly admired Bronzino for his technical virtuosity as a painter, and Giorgio Vasari praised him for his powers as a disegnatore (designer and draftsman).

The preparation of this volume and of those that have stiU to foUow necessitated a fairly long sojourn in Great Britain and 1 feel that 1 must express my gratitude to an those with whom 1 carne in contact for the continuation of this work. Here 1 should like to convey my personal appre ciation, which 1 feeI sure is shared by every historian of art, of the kindness of Sir Robert and Lady Witt, whose collec tion, incredibly rich in reproductions of works of art, is open to students in a manner which is as cordial as it is useful. My relations with private collectors and with the officials of museums and other collections will always remain a very happy souvenir and once more 1 wish to thank more par ticularly Mr. Arthur M. Hind of the Print Room of the British Museum for all that he did to facilitate my study of this marvellous collection of drawings and prints. Sa1'1 Marca di Perugia, December I928. INTRODUCTION After the death of Cosimo de' Medici, Florence lost for a short time that perfect harmony of tendencies which united the noble seigneur with all his surroundings and with the artists and which, during the first generation of the Renaissance, was so fruitful.

Energetic, incisive, spontaneous, and expressive, the drawings of Filippino Lippi (1457/58-1504) are among the most original and creative of the Italian Renaissance.