Fra Angelico at San Marco
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Fra Angelico at San Marco Details
From Library Journal Sponsored by the Medici, Fra Angelico's paintings for the priory of San Marco are among the foremost monuments in early Renaissance Florence. This extraordinary cycle, though stylistically au courant, emerges out of a tradition of sacred subject matter favored by the artist's Observant Dominican order. Hood's masterful study persuasively reconstructs the link between the paintings and the institutional spirituality articulated in the order's liturgical habits and literary traditions. While rejecting the notion of a unified iconographic program, the author ably demonstrates the formal and didactic intentions that underlie Angelico's artistic and intellectual choices. Hood's profound understanding of the Observants' religious mentality and its committed expression in the artist's work are complemented by a comprehensive grasp of the art historical context and a keen ability to articulate the paintings' nuances of style. An exquisite corpus of reproductions further enhances an exemplary scholarly labor. Highly recommend ed.- Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New YorkCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more
Reviews
My review of this book is simple - it is an undiluted treasure for lovers of art, history and culture. It would be one of the books I would place in a time capsules so that generations of people in 100 or 1,000 years time will still be able to enjoy the marriage of spirituality and art expressed in their highest forms.