Fra Angelico: Colour LibraryFra Angelico (c. 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. Christopher Lloyd's authoritative essay on Angelico was first published in 1979, with the forty-eight 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. |
Common terms and phrases
Adoration altarpiece Plate 24 Angelico Annunciation arch architectural Centre panel Chapel of Pope Child Enthroned Christ Christopher Lloyd church of Santa composition convent of San Coronation Cortona Cortona altarpiece Cosmas and Damian Cosmas and St Cross depiction Detail from Plate Domenico at Fiesole Dominican Fiesole figures Florence foreground Fra Angelico frescoes Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria John the Baptist kneeling landscape Lawrence before Valerianus Lawrence distributing Alms Linaiuoli Triptych Lorenzo Ghiberti Marco altarpiece Plate Martyrdom of St Masaccio Missal Museo di San Museo Diocesano Nicholas of Bari Ordination of St painter Perugia PHAIDON COLOUR LIBRARY picture space Plate 39 Pope Nicholas predella panel receiving the Treasures Rome sacra conversazione saints San Domenico San Marco altarpiece San Marco Cell scene shown St Cosmas St Damian St Dominic St John St Lawrence distributing St Lawrence receiving St Mark St Nicholas St Stephen Sts Peter Martyr throne Vatican Virgin and Child wall