The knowledge of national and local traditions, as well as the personal style of each artist, is what makes Adal (in the 1920s along with Roberto Longhi and, more recently, with Federico Zeri) one of the most important experts in Italian art and particularly one of the best connoisseurs of the period 1520-1600.

The combination of detailed analysis of form with the emphasis on the artistic work as a realization of the ideals of a social group or class has not always been achieved in his work. There are moments, in his individual analyses, where this is achieved perfectly and moments where the comparative morphology is either autonomous or dominated by a kind of automatic sociologism, where the meaning of the work is equated with the ideology/social position of its commissioner.

However, this combination is also the most challenging requirement, and it must be admitted that the art historians who have managed to approach it in some of their good moments are very few.

[Excerpt from the publisher's or edition's presentation text]