Italian Renaissance Drawings from the Musée du Louvre, Paris: Roman, Tuscan, and Emilian Schools, 1500–1575

These beautiful Italian Renaissance drawings, lent to us by the Cabinet des Dessins of the Musée du Louvre, come as the latest wave of French generosity to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They follow upon the glorious tapestries lent to us earlier this year for the exhibition Masterpieces of Tapestry from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. Loan exhibition of such great works of art are the first positive results of recent agreements between the National Museums of France and the Metropolitan Museum intended to facilitate the exchange of works of art and of personnel between France and America.

In October, 1973, the Metropolitan Museum sent to Paris and exhibition that included its finest drawings by French artists of the nineteenth century; the present splendid selection of drawings by Italian Renaissance masters from the Louvre is France's response to New York's loan to Paris. For it we owe a great debt of gratitude to Jean Chatelain, Director of the Museums of France, and to Maurice Sérullaz, Chief Curator of the Cabinet des Dessins of the Louvre.