Bernard Berenson was one of the most important and famous art historians in the Western world. He was a student at Harvard University, where he studied the works of Dante, took courses in art history, and fell in love with the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Bernard Berenson married Mary Whitall Smith, and at the beginning of the last century the couple moved to Florence, to the splendid Villa I Tatti, which had belonged to John Temple-Leader. Following the immediate success and recognition of his academic publications, Bernard Berenson became the expert on the Renaissance. He was instrumental in pioneering the provenance of works of art. His evaluation and judgment of authenticity could cause the value of works of art to be raised to higher quotations. Berenson died in 1959 at the age of ninety-four and left his splendid Villa I Tatti and the contents of his library to Harvard University. Today it is one of the most advanced and successful research centers in every aspect of the Italian Renaissance.
