Amedeo Modigliani Catalogue Raisonné of the oil paintings

The six-volume Modigliani catalogue raisonné—authored by art historian and leading Modigliani scholar Marc Restellini and distributed by Yale University Press—is the culmination of work amassed since he first began his research in 1985. For this monumental project, Restellini has made use of scientific and technological tools, including spectrometry, carbon 14, infrared, and X-ray imaging, that were not available when the Italian scholar Ambrogio Ceroni produced his Modigliani catalogue raisonné between 1958 and 1970.

Through scientific, stylistic, and documentary analyses, Restellini has authenticated some 100 Modigliani works—half of which were already in prominent museum collections—that were not included in Ceroni’s volumes. Restellini has also excluded 15 works that were previously included in Ceroni’s catalogue raisonné because these works did not meet Restellini’s criteria for authentication.

Volume one of Restellini’s catalogue raisonné gives a full explanation of his methodology for authentication, and volume two provides a full chronology of Modigliani’s life and body of work. Volumes three through five contain Modigliani’s paintings, each represented by a full-page reproduction accompanied by complete provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Volume six comprises all the indexes concerning the data used in the catalogue, as well as a technical and iconographic index.