In this sumptuous, scholarly volume, the life of Dominican friar and artist Fra Angelico (1400-55) is presented in the context of his work. Spike (Massaccio, LJ 6/1/96) divides his book into three sections: life and work, color plates (with commentary), and a black-and-white catalog. He records the influences that shaped Angelico's life and work, notably the emergence of the Humanists, the Council of Florence (1440), Cosimo de' Medici, and the library at San Marco, and also presents important original findings on Angelico's fresco cycles in the cloister of San Marco, Florence. Recent investigations of others, including Georges Didi-Huberman's Fra Angelico: Dissemblance and Figuration (LJ 2/1/96), are carefully referenced in the footnoted text. While there is not yet a catalogue raisonee, this difficult but rewarding book, with its many quality illustrations and fresh perspective, offers a complex overview for informed readers. ?Ellen Bates, New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Choice, 11/97
. . . Spike's beautifully illustrated monograph . . . presents the clearest interpretation of his career to date.
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