This issue of Museum Studies focuses on the Art Institute of Chicago’s impressive collection of Old Master paintings, works on paper, textiles, tapestries, and sculptures. With an
introduction by Larry J. Feinberg on the growth and evolution of the museum’s Old Master collection, the book includes five fascinating and richly illustrated essays written by museum
curators and scholars. They examine recent acquisitions and present new discoveries and scholarship on a range of works––including a recently rediscovered Nativity by Fra Bartolommeo; a
late-15th-century Hispano-Flemish sculpture of Saint Michael and the Devil; a series of reattributed drawings by 17th-century artists such as Guido Reni and Guercino; a pair of
early-18th-century tapestries designed by the French artist Charles LeBrun; and a stunning group of works by Charles-Antoine Coypel, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, and Maurice Quentin de La Tour,
the preeminent pastellists of 18th-century France.
