Introduction

This exhibition presents the extant correspondence--nearly all unpublished--between Bernard Berenson and Yukio Yashiro. At the height of their fame they were among the most influential art historians in the West and in Japan, respectively. Today Yashiro is little known outside of his native country except for his monograph on Botticelli, published in English in 1925, now available on this website. Yashiro described his goals for the book in a remarkable letter from 1922 to Laurence Binyon: “I shall make clear what I, a man brought up in an artistic atmosphere utterly different from that of Europe, feel of Botticelli, that side of Botticelli which, as I think, was never, or perhaps very little, appreciated by European connoisseurs.”... Read more about Introduction

Letters from Yashiro

Yashiro (in Oiso) to Bernard Berenson

Yashiro's Study of the Annunciation in Art (1952), mentioned in this letter, was sent to Berenson with a handwritten dedication by the author. A sketch of Yashiro by Dario Neri was found in the book. The sketch was presumably made when Yashiro visited I Tatti in 1956; see below.