Review: Italian Frescoes: The Early Renaissance 1400-1470

Hardcover, 464 pages, almost all in color.
Publisher: Abbeville Press, 1996.
ISBN: 0789201399.
Part of a long series of frescoes through history.

The Italian Frescoes series of books expansively trace the history and trends of art throughout Italy, concentrating on the main cities. Through history, wealthy patrons hired painters to adorn their various palaces and churches. Frescoes, being so bright and colorful, and also being an art style that lent itself well to wall painting, became the form of choice for these adornments.

Though this is at heart a book about art history, don't let that fool you. It is also an invaluable aid to understanding the clothing of the period, especially men's clothing! Examine these frescoes carefully to find information about how the clothes were supposed to look--colors, lengths, sleeves, undergarments, you name it. You'll also find pictures of what towns looked like and how clergymen dressed, and how churches looked.

Beginning with a general history of fresco art and an overview of the artist, Roettgen proceeds to "fresco cycles," or chapters devoted to one individual fresco site, usually painted by one or a few people (or overseen by one). The cycles are arranged generally by date, beginning with Trent's "Eagles Tower", done before 1407 and featuring various calendar scenes similar to those found in any medieval "Book of Hours" like the one belonging once to the Duc du Berry. The scenes are amazingly captured, colorful and vibrant, with literally hundreds of costume studies and paintings of town life. There's even a scene of some ladies hawking.

We move on to the Manta (Piedmont) cycle in Castello di Manta, painted around 1411. Of course, the documentation provided is amazing, with numerous paintings and photos of similar works, and a history of the site. Stylized lovers kiss, pull each other into fountains to bathe, and make their way in procession complete with mules and pack animals and brightly arrayed horses.

It goes on like this. Churches, oratories, hospitals, chapter after chapter of stunning, colorful frescoes, almost all of contemporary Renaissance Italians going about their everyday lives. If you like horses and equestrian stuff, by the way, this just might be your Holy Grail: there are some enormously well-detailed close-ups of riding tack.

Some of the high points include the Sienese fresco cycle from the "Hospital of Santa Maria Della Scala", which has a number of high-class male costumes including the one I affectionately term the fop. There's also the Procession of the Magi, a huge fresco cycle of men marching down a mountain following four kings, all lavishly decorated (and featuring a black man in the foreground!), and the "Hall of the Months" in Ferrara, with twelve classical gods and goddesses presiding over frescoes depicting normal life for each month. These are well-known pieces you've almost certainly seen if you have any familiarity with art of the period, but you'll see them here in detail you can't possibly have imagined.

Should you invest the money? I'd say yes, if you are very interested in costuming of the period, or if you just love art history. This is a tremendous book, beautifully produced on good thick paper, with tons of color art. There's a small reference section in the back with useful information like lists of damage and restoration done to each cycle's frescoes, as well as a bibliography and some endnotes. All in all this is an extraordinary reference work, one which I refer to often and which I recommend completely to you.