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THE Courtauld Gallery holds one of Britain's most important repositories of old master, Impressionist and early modern drawings, and for the first time a substantial number of the works will be making a trans-Atlantic crossing, for ''MANTEGNA TO MATISSE,'' a selection of 58 masterpieces that begins Tuesday at the Frick Collection. Between the two artists of the exhibition's title lie many more that require no more than a single name -- Leonardo, Dürer, Pontormo, Michelangelo, Rubens, Guercino, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Goya, Turner, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso. The Courtauld's single most celebrated work on paper, often described as one of the finest drawings of the Italian Renaissance drawing -- Michelangelo's ''Il Sogno'' or ''The Dream'' -- will be among the loans, as will Leonardo's pen-and-ink ''Studies for St. Mary Magdalene.'' Another masterwork from the collection will be Rubens's chalk portrait of his second wife, Helena Fourment, which includes one of the most lovingly wrought depictions of a single hand -- the right one, of course, raised and articulated with great sculptural flourish -- in all of Western art. Through Jan. 27, 1 East 70th Street; (212) 288-0700, frick.org. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that a portrait of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be painted by Jonathan Yeo, a well known portrait painter. The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn has commissioned the first official portrait of Blair. The painting will be exhibited in March, 2008 at Lincoln Inn.

The article presents information related to a new formal portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, a British queen, snapped by Annie Leibovitz, a photographer. It has been reported that the photograph has divided the critics. The photograph taken at the Buckingham Palace, London, England to commemorate the queen's six-day visit to the U.S. has drawn praise from British critics and a thumbs down from Henry Allen, the Washington Post's culture critic.

Focuses on the exhibition 'Elizabeth,' at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. How Queen Elizabeth I of England marketed her image through her portraits; Use of the royal image to assert, consolidate and maintain her grip on power; Historical background; Highlights of the show; Why Elizabeth's marital status and the question of succession was central to Elizabeth's image.

Reports that a 16th-century portrait generally identified as 'Lady Norton' may in fact depict Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton and patron of William Shakespeare. Ambiguity about the subject's sexuality; Similarities between the subject's features and costume and a 1603 portrait of Wriothesley; Efforts of the Norton portrait's owner, Alec Cobbe, to discover the truth; How the painting has fueled speculation over Shakespeare's possible bisexuality. INSET: Sonnet 20.

Focuses on Peter Max's acrylic portraits featuring Diana, Princess of Wales, which will be auctioned on the Internet. Cost of the portraits; Foundations that 90 percent of the proceeds will be donated to; Remarks by Max, who love painting famous persons; Photographs that Max choose the images he used from.