Fra Angelico

In his engaging new appraisal, John Spike discusses how Angelico's painting reveals important artistic innovations, from his use of linear perspective to his invention of the Renaissance altarpiece known as the sacra conversazione (sacred conversation). As the author persuasively demonstrates, his precision with Greek, Latin, and Hebrew inscriptions placed him in the center of the new theological debates of the time. This Dominican friar fulfilled some of the most remarkably learned early humanistic projects, from his early Annunciations, to his ambitious series of large frescoes for the Dominican monastery of San Marco in Florence, to papal commissions including the private chapel for the humanist Pope Nicholas V.

This essential volume contains an extensive essay on the artist's life and work, followed by large color plates with detailed discussions of individual works and a catalog of the artist's oeuvre. Lavish details of Angelico's works and an up-to-date bibliography make this volume indispensable for anyone interested in this critical period of the Renaissance.