The Chapel of the Magi. The Frescoes of Benozzo Gozzoli

The procession of the three Magi unfolds with a mixture of exotic, oriental splendor and stately, bourgeois respectability in the fresco cycle painted by Benozzo Gozzoli on the walls of the Medici family private chapel in Florence. Completed in 1459 and restored between 1988 and 1992, Gozzoli's popular frescoes set the divinely prophesied cavalcade of the Magi against a landscape strewn with allusions to the Last Judgment and contemporary Florence. Enlivened by dramatic juxtapositions of choirs of angels, hunting scenes, castles and Eden-like gardens with peacocks, the paintings incorporate 32 realistic portraits of Gozzoli's contemporaries, including his noble patrons, the Medici. Featuring 184 color plates with scores of close-ups, this lavish volume, edited by Italian art historian and restorationist Luchinat, includes scholarly essays on Gozzoli's iconography, his involvement in humanist circles and the recent restoration. Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This beautifully produced book documents in exquisite detail the best-known paintings by the 15th-century Florentine master Gozzoli, which portrays the wise men en route through a fairy-tale landscape. This subject gave Gozzoli the opportunity to depict his figures in a courtly, opulent style reflecting the status and affluence of his powerful sponsor, Cosimo de Medici. The recent cleaning of the frescoes is impressively showcased: taking its cue from the recent Brancacci Chapel (LJ 10/1/92), this book examines the Chapel of the Magi wall by wall, figure by figure, with dozens of full-page, actual-size reproductions. An especially pleasing feature is that a great many of the facing pages are left a plain matte black, thus visually isolating the details so judiciously highlighted on the opposite page. Although the work contains several stiffly written scholarly essays, editor Luchinat wisely decides to let the 300 pages of illustrations dominate. What results is an extraordinary resource for the student of painting as well as the art lover in general. Highly recommended.