Christmas art books

The only halfway festive offering in this year’s crop of art books is Laurence Kanter and Pia Palladino’s Fra Angelico. Even in these secularised times, Angelico is still a favourite in the Christmas card stakes. First and foremost, however, this is a major scholarly reassessment of the artist’s career, but it also doubles as the catalogue of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which closes at the end of January. For all that it is lavishly illustrated and gorgeously produced, it makes few concessions to non-specialists, but that does not mean it is not worth persevering with. A generation ago, Angelico’s oeuvre had been pared down by an access (and possibly excess) of art historical caution: here, in contrast, the old guard may feel that anything goes, but nobody could regret the parade of fascinating newly rediscovered works on offer.

The blond tonalities and spatial harmony of Angelico must have appealed to Piero della Francesca, even if he can at times seem more indebted to the monumental calm of Masaccio, but he is more obviously analytical in his approach to picture-making than either of them.