Giotto / Frescoes in the Upper Church of Assisi; Introduction by Dr. Alfred Lerner / Hand-Lettering by H. Felix Kraus
New York: H. Felix Kraus Books International, 1949. Limited edition. Folio (18 1/4 inches tall), original blue paper boards, large printed label mounted to front board, blank cloth spine. Mild toning to boards, tape marks and earlier glassine fragments to endpapers, slight wave to mounted label. A near-fine copy. Item #1318
"LO, I AM HE BY WHOM DEAD PAINTING WAS RESTORED TO LIFE / BY WHOM ART BECAME ONE WITH NATURE"
Limited edition—one of only 130 copies—of this illustrated study of Giotto's frescoes in the Upper Church of Assisi—an enormous folio volume with calligraphed text and mounted color plates.
Dr. Lerner's Introduction lauds Giotto: "Above all he was a marvelous story-teller, rendering what some consider the greatest event since the start of the Christian era, namely St. Francis' summoning the world to a way of life through love." This folio is illustrated with 11 color printed plates mounted on thick paper, including a double-page plate: "The Pictures are all details from the larger frescoes which were supposed to have been painted between 1306 and 13010." I. St Francis gives his mantle to a poor man, II. St. Francis renounces his father and his worldly goods, II. The friars see St. Francis on the fiery chariot riding, IV. St. Francis chases the spirits of war from Assisi, V. The Cross atop the the Christmas crib at Greccio, VI. The knight of Celano dies after dinner, VII. Stigmatization of St. Francis, VIII. The conversion of St. Hieronymous, IX. Head of Pope Honorius the Third, X. Confession of the resuscitated woman, XI. Burial of St. Francis: a kneeling monk. The famed medieval cycle of frescoes, painted in the Upper Church of San Francesco, was attributed, for centuries, to Giotto. However, recent scholarship by Christopher Smart confronts a "problem of attribution" and upends the 1568 Vasarian attributions, asserting that the cycle is actually the work of several artists.
Price: $150.00