FRA ANGELICO

London: Phaidon Press, 1992. 'Colour Library'. Front cover illustration: 'The annunciation''. Christopher Lloyd's authoritative essay on Angelico was first published in 1979, with the 48 full-page colour plates. For this revised edition, David White has added a full and clear commentary on each picture, and numerous black-and-white illustrations to compare with the paintings. Fra Angelico (ca.1400 - 55) is one of the most popular artists of the early Italian Renaissance. In his own lifetime churches and cathedrals competed for his work, and the style he evolved has come to be regarded as the natural language of religious painting. For more than a century the popular image of an angel has been that of an angel by Fra Angelico. Perhaps his best known work is the series of fresco decorations in the convent of San Marco in Florence, where Angelico was a friar. These paintings tell the story of the life of Christ as vividly and movingly today as they must have done over five hundred years ago. The powerful simplicity of the forms, the treatment of light and the subtlety of colour testify both to Fra Angelico's personal religious conviction and to his awareness of recent developments in Florentine art. This comprehensive survey of Angelico's work includes many panels from San Marco, and from his other important commission in the Vatican, and a superb selection of altarpieces and panels spanning his whole working life. With 83 illustrations, 48 in colour. With outline biography and select bibliography. 126 + (1) pag.. Revised and enlarged edition. Paperback. Fine condition/Cover in color. 30cmx22,5cm.