In 1856, a Milanese print-publisher named Vallardi offered for sale 378 sheets

of drawings reputed to be the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Bought by the Louvre,

the collection was found to contain some 250 sheets of drawings by Pisanello.

Pisanello (13957-14567) was a painter of marked originality and the greatest of

Italian medallists. Today he is singled out particularly for his masterful depictions

of animals, a reputation which rests in part on the drawings of the Vallardi collec-

tion. In Pisanello s other remaining works -- two great frescoes, his paintings and

medals--animals also appear, worked skillfully into the foreground and back-

ground. Many of the Vallardi drawings are studies for the animal figures of the

larger works.