An Italian Journey: Drawings from the Tobey Collection, Correggio to Tiepolo

This beautiful catalog, accompanying a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of Italian drawings from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, will delight connoisseurs of the Italian Renaissance and intrigue readers less familiar with the period. The volume documents the comprehensive collection of David M. Tobey (a cover artist for the New Yorker) and his wife Julie, including 72 drawings by 200 artists from all regions of Italy. Each drawing and print is addressed with a scholarly yet accessible essay, and appears below a brief biographical sketch of the artist. Images of comparable works provide context. Subjects range from Julius Caesar to a Venetian palace (complete with a photograph of the modern-day structure) to "two Persian grooms holding a Sultan's horse" (a striking piece). Although readers unfamiliar with Italian drawings from this era may be reluctant to pick up such a book, they will be richly rewarded by the in-depth treatment these works are accorded by the museum scholars. Illustrations. (June)