Jane’s engaging narration reveals the true meaning of Fra Angelico’s frescoes in the context of the culture, politics, and monastic traditions of the times. Jane’s focusing guidance explains the central role these remarkable paintings played in the daily lives of the humble friars who lived at San Marco. Step by step, a deep and lasting appreciation emerges of Fra Angelico's piety, his technical virtuosity and the traditions of life at San Marco.
“I applaud Jane’s vision in producing specialized audio guides for travelers who are interested in art,” says George Braziller, publisher of the Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance series.
Between 1440 to 1452, Fra Angelico and his faithful assistants graced the walls of the convent with more than 50 elegant frescoes that, still today, convey the profound humility that characterized the Observant Dominican order.
In the Chapter Room is the image the friars contemplated as they bared their backs for communal flagellation. In the East Corridor, the Madonna of the Shadows evidences Fra Angelico’s ground-breaking technical skill with its still-astonishing illusion of shadows.
One series of frescoes served as visual aids, to teach the novices how to pray and meditate, demonstrating the ‘nine ways of praying’. Observant Dominicans assumed these postures to achieve various desired states of mind – much like yoga.
Just as it greets visitors today, Fra Angelico’s beloved Annunciation greeted the friars, more than five-and-a-half centuries ago, when they ascended the staircase from the cloister, genuflecting and reciting “Ave Maria” as they passed.
The serenity of the convent today belies the tumultuous politics that roiled outside these walls, and sometimes even within. One of Michelangelo’s brothers was a friar at San Marco when the firebrand preacher, Savonarola, was prior in the 1490s, living in a tiny suite of bare cells, while countless Renaissance art treasures were being consumed in his notorious ‘bonfires of the vanities’.
For further information, please contact: Jane McIntosh
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www.JanesSmartArt.com Recognition for Jane’s Smart Art Guides™2007 Benjamin Franklin Awards, Finalist
Best Books Award Winner, USA BookNews
IPPY Award Finalist
Award of Excellence, The Communicator Awards
BookReview.com Travel Book of the Month
What Reviewers and Travelers Are Saying About Jane's Smart Art Guides™“Jane's Smart Art Guides are conspicuous in their attention to quality. Jane has a beautiful voice … a supple, easy quality … that enhances the pleasure of listening. It is a true marvel to feel her presence with and her enjoyment of what she is describing. Rating: Excellent!” BookReview.com
A simply wonderful ‘hands-free’ guide … nicely paced, well organized and thoroughly user friendly. Midwest Book Review
Guide Rating - “If you really want to get inside the art (and sometimes inside the head of the artist who created it) Jane's Smart Art Guides seem a darn good way to do it.” James Martin, About.com
“[ STA. MARIA DEL POPOLO ] is laid out … to facilitate ease of use. It is well-written, very informative … a great aid to the traveler who wants more information and historical background than they can readily find on-site. ... like bringing your art history professor to Italy with you, but it travels better. ” BookReview.com
“I was really impressed by the ingenuity and the content of [ STA. MARIA DEL POPOLO ] … elegant and eloquent.”
Caroline P. Murphy, The Pope’s Daughter
“[ STA. MARIA DEL POPOLO ] is fantastic. I have read everything I could find about this church, and I learned so much more during your tour. … easy to follow and tourist friendly. … such a wonderful resource. … highly recommended!” C. Stigger, Travel Journalist
“Wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed [ ST. PETER'S BASILICA ] on my recent trip to Rome. It has the exact level of detail I was looking for (in other words, quite a bit!) and very much enhanced my visit to the Basilica. I definitely want to keep up with any new guides you develop.”
A customer, Tulsa, OK
“[ ST PETER'S BASILICA ] is certainly one of the most useful works on the basilica. … I'm impressed and delighted. … It seems that one can never exhaust St Peter's, and that is very evident in this guide."
Alan Howard, stpetersbasilica.org
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