Vasari Exhibit Makes Debut

A S4 million sheet of drawings currently making its American debut highlights the Fogg Art Museums newest exhbibition.

A page from Italian Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari's "Libro de' Disegni"--purchased last summer by New York real estate developer fan Woodner--headlines a group of Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, which opened last weekend at the Fogg.

The museum's major spring show, which includes 40 newly acquired drawings from the Woodner collection, will run through March 31.

Purchased at auction in London last summer, the page of 10 different drawings is the only one of its kind owned by a private collector, according to Konrad J. Oberhuber, Woodner Curass of Drawings in the Harvard University Art Museums.

Woodner, who studied architectured at the Graduate School of Design, described the page as "possibly the best full sheet that is known to exist."

Works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Degas, Durer, Da Vinci, Holbem , Redon, Cellini, Seural, and Picasso are also included in the show.

Oberhuber said the additions were appropriate for Harvard, where they will be viewed by students in Fine Arts 13b and Oberhuber's own courses. "They show the development of the artists with their little imperfections," Oberhuber said.

From, Harvard, the Woodner Collection will move to The Albertina in Vienna and then possible to London.