Glasgow Museums

The collection includes masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini, Signorelli, Titian, Domenichino, Guardi and Salvator Rosa, and these are only the highlights among some 150 Italian paintings ranging from the late fourteenth to the late nineteenth centuries.Throughout the early twentieth century, the Italian paintings were included in various editions of Glasgow Museums' catalogue of paintings. This was only a summary catalogue with basic information, the last edition of which was published in 1935. In the 1970s, a two-volume Italian catalogue was planned, but only the volume of illustrations was published. The present catalogue, therefore, fully illustrated with 192 reproductions in colour and 50 in black and white, is long overdue. As well as providing an account of the current state of research on each of the works, it seeks to provide a basis for further research, and to stimulate a much wider appreciation of the collection's range and interest. The book begins with an historical introduction to the collection and explains how, largely through the generosity of several important collectors, Glasgow came to have such a fine collection. Notable donors included Archibald McLellan, John Graham Gilbert, Sir William Burrell and Sir William Stirling Maxwell and heirs.