Fra Angelico at San Marco
"With his careful research and vibrant, entertaining prose, Mr. Hood explicates Fra Angelico's paintings so that they seem fresh and luminous, and the reader can view the frescoes as vehicles for spiritual transformation."—Douglas A. Sylva , New York Times Book Review "A comprehensive and illuminating study of the Dominican painter's much-loved frescoes in Florence and of the religious life that surrounded them."—New Statesman & Society "[An] unusually beautifully produced book, with excellent colour photography . . . its intelligent and sensitive text transforms our understanding of a body of work that it has become easy to take for granted. . . . A rich and highly perceptive account . . . presented with enviable lucidity."—David Ekserdjian, The Times (London) "The author's sure sense of Dominican lore and of artistic currents prevalent in 15th-century Tuscany illuminate Fra Angelico's work as no book has done before. . . . William Hood's richly layered study defines the matrix of Fra Angelico's vision, but it also catches the vibrations of a lost spiritual world."—Bruce Boucher, The Independent "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 emotion 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 recommended."—Library Journal "This exceptionally beautiful book describes the corporate mentality in early 15th-century Florence. It reminds us that Fra Angelico . . . was a member of the Observant Dominicans, which meant that from his mid-twenties he was a wholly committed, corporate man. . . . Fra Angelico at San Marco is a superbly evocative picture of the lives of its inmates and the role played by images seen a thousand times. Our understanding of these paintings is lastingly deepened by descriptions which relate the image to the liturgy and to meditational literature."—Patricia Morison, Financial Times "The detailed analysis in this volume places the artist firmly in his period and in Dominican context. . . . Hood's volume has the enormous advantage of excellent color reproductions. . . . [He] treat[s] this universally appealing artist's work with the aesthetic high-mindedness it warrants."—Christopher Andreae, Christian Science Monitor "William Hood . . . is an evocative writer. . . . Large portions [of this book] can be pleasurably read even without reference to the skillfully chosen and beautifully printed selection of documentary images. . . . Text and pictures reciprocally draw one on in this discovery of a vividly depicted world."—Thomas Frick, Los Angeles Times Book Review "This remarkable book is quite unlike the customary art historical monograph. . . . Hood reconstructs, in quite staggering detail, the visual, doctrinal and political culture of the Dominican Order from the late thirteenth to the mid fifteenth centuries. . . . [Hood provides] detailed, loving and vivid analysis of pictures—not only those of the Fra, but also his predecessors and contemporaries. With the extensive and accurate colour illustrations, this is revelatory stuff. . . . William Hood's beautifully crafted, scholarly book glows with the same warmth as his subject."—Elizabeth Cross, The Sydney Morning Herald "A beautifully produced volume. The many colour illustrations of S. Marco, mostly by Niccolò Orsi Battaglini, are stupendous in quality and number. . . . William Hood's text reads with a majesty and pace which probably only the Dominican's daily round of office could match. It is a magnificent celebration of Angelico at the convent of S. Marco."—Carl Brandon Strehlke, Burlington Magazine "The book is moving in its dedication to elucidating how the genius of Fra Angelico reflected, and in turn illuminated, the religious life he had espoused."—Nicholas Penny, Times Literary Supplement "The scholarship is impeccable and Hood's use of it is . . . supple and sympathetic. . . . Never has the case for Angelico's originality been argued more persuasively. A beautiful book in every sense."—Dr. George Goldner, Dr. John Golding, Professor Walter Cahn, jurors for the 1994 Mitchell Awards, in which Hood won for outstanding first book "An outstanding contribution to a small but growing body of art-historical literature that deals with the role of religious orders in the development of Renaissance art. . . . Hood's volume is of inestimable value both as a model for new scholarship . . . and as an addition to the Fra Angelico literature."—Mary-Ann Winkelmes, Speculum—A Journal of Medieval Studies
TOP
|