The first in a projected series of scholarly catalogues on the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, this volume focuses on one of the finest and least published collections of early Italian paintings in the United States. The catalogue, written by Christopher Lloyd, contains comprehensive entries on close to one hundred paintings, ranging from an outstanding thirteenth-century panel by the Master of the Bigallo Crucifix to a recently rediscovered. Portrait of Alessandro de Medici by Pontormo. Also featured are a splendid group of early Sienese paintings (including six panels from one of Giovanni di Paolo's most important ensembles), a rare group of Florentine cassone panels, an early masterpiece by Correggio, and major works by Taddeo di Bartolo, Jacopo Bassano, Botticelli, Moretto, Moroni, Perugino, and Jacopo Tintoretto. In an introductory essay, Martha Wolff, the general editor of the catalogue and Curator of. European Painting before 1750, discusses the central role played by Martin A. Ryerson (1836-1932), one of the museum's founders, in forming this collection. Each painting in the catalogue is accompanied by complete and up-to-date documentation, including a detailed description of physical condition, a fully documented provenance, and a critical discussion of attribution, date, subject, and function, as well as a summary of earlier scholarship. Forty works are reproduced. In color, the rest in duotone; there are also eighty comparative illustrations.