Fra Angelico by Alfred Pichon. Published by Plon-Nourrit & Cie., Paris. Undated but published circa 1912. Illustrated with engravings. Hardcover, 208 pages. Measures about 6 1/8" x 8 3/8". Text in French.

This volume was published as part of the series "Les Maitres de L'Art" (The Masters of Art), which was published under the patronage of France's Ministry of Public Education and Fine Arts.

What's notable about this book is the binding. The book has been rebound in full maroon leather with beautiful gilt decoration on the front cover, the spine, and the inside margins of the front and back covers. The book itself is a work of art.

The book is in very nice condition. There is minor wear to the covers. There are no bookplates, ink names, pen/pencil notations, or similar flaws. The interior pages are well-preserved with slight age-appropriate browning at the margins.

Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395 – 1455) was a Dominican friar and Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence, then worked in Rome and other cities. All his known work is of religious subjects.

Known posthumously as the "Angelic Painter," Fra Angelico helped usher in a revolution in Italian painting. Steeped in the new spirit of Renaissance Humanism, Angelico and young painters such as Masaccio insisted on painting religious subjects in a rational, illusionistic space and with all of the solidity of the human body. A friar in the mendicant Dominican order, Angelico fused piety and artistic innovation to create some of the most deeply moving frescoes and altarpieces of the Early Renaissance period.

Check our other auctions for a similar volume concerning Benozzo Gozzoli.

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