The beatified painter who covered the white cloisters of San
Marco with his visions has been fortunate in his fame, for, while the hearts of the devout have always been his, even the most modern critics allow the values of his art. Fro Angelico, by Wilhelm Hausenstein, translated by Agnes Blake (Methuen, 25s.), is a strange book. It is written by one who is a Catholic, entangling a naturally daring spirit of inquiry with proviso and preamble, and a German, loving to see fair images vanish in a cloud of meta- physic. The result is a kind of religious meditation, almost a " rapture " on Fm Angelico. At the same time the writer is evidently well acquainted both with painting and with history. The record of the gentle Dominican's life is nothing but a tale of absorbed and happy work, so there is room for conjecture. An interesting passage on Dominican monks works out in a subtle comment on the feminism of Antonino and Angelico, and concludes that the revival of Dominican art at this period was the dowry of the women of the order. The writer discusses the influence of the Ikon, and the influence of the Illumination, not without fantasy, but also with some originality, as in his note on the me of the golden background. He is at pains to bring out the Gothic and the Byzantine notes in Fro Angelico ; and, though with some reluctance, admits that he was also a child of the Renaissance, however unconscious. When he painted as a " painter," not an angel, it was " a dreamlike gesture." The study is incoherent ; but it has brilliant moments. Piety seems to require too many ejaculations, yet some of the Passages, even in translation, are quite beautiful. The sixty- five illustrations are useful as reminders only. Fra Angelico needs his pure colours.
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