A glorious publication on the "saintly and excellent" Florentine friar and painter whose religious scenes exemplify Renaissance theories of perspective and humanism.
After exploring the language of Gothic painting, the great Tuscan artist Fra Angelico enthusiastically took up the new principles of Renaissance art then emerging in Florence. This volume offers a thorough exploration of the extraordinary talent of this artist, bringing out his capacity for artistic innovation in the service of deep spiritual values.
The book also provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state of research on Angelico. Its scholarly significance is further reinforced by the unprecedented reunion of five altarpieces that have been dismantled over the centuries: the San Piero Martire Altarpiece, the San Domenico Altarpiece in Fiesole, the Compagnia di San Francesco Altarpiece in Santa Croce, the San Marco Altarpiece and the Perugia Altarpiece. While the main panels have stayed in Italy, the remaining elements are dispersed across museum collections worldwide. The volume includes critical essays, a study of the history of the Museum of San Marco and an analysis of Angelico's frescoes preserved in the Sala del Capitolo, the cloisters and the monastic cells. This is a definitive and indispensable work of reference on the artist.
Born in Vicchio di Mugello as Guido di Pietro, Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455) joined the Dominican order as a mendicant friar. He painted several frescoes for the Convent of San Marco in Florence, including the Annunciation, and decorated Cosimo de Medici's personal room in the monastery. In his later years he was called to Rome to decorate chapels for Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Nicholas V. Of his life, Giorgio Vasari wrote: "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."