Italian Paintings in the Norton Simon Museum

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Penny Nicholas

The preeminent collector Norton Simon amassed more than 100 Italian paintings during his 35-year career, and today they stand among the treasures of the Norton Simon Museum. In this catalogue – the first of two volumes devoted to the museum's Italian painting collection – noted art historian Sir Nicholas Penny pairs 47 paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries with in-depth commentary, skillfully interweaving tales from the artists' lives, observations on the artists' influences and patronage, and notes on provenance and frames. The works featured here include Guido Cagnacci's (1601-1663) impressive Conversion of the Mary Magdalene and Guercino's (1591-1666) formidable Aldovrandi Dog, among other works by such artists as Guido Reni (1610/12-1662), Luca Giordano (1634-1705), Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770), and Canaletto (1697-1768). This is an indispensable overview of one of the greatest collections of its kind in the United States.

About the Author

Nicholas Penny is Director of the National Gallery, London. He was previously Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. He has published widely on painting and sculpture, including "Giotto to Durer" (Yale 1991); "The Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum" (1992); "The Materials of Sculpture" (Yale 1993) and the "National Gallery Catalogues of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings", vols I (2004) and II (2008).

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