352-page volume, 26 x 38 cm. Printed with stochastic cross-hatching and hot-worked gold. Hand-crafted binding in okume wood and leather, inspired by precious medieval codices.Cover with gold tooling. Slipcase in Plexiglas. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies.

 

Forty pearls, forty paintings of unsurpassable beauty, selected from among the thousands that Italian art has given to humanity, from the grandiose thirteenth-century crucifixes by Cimabue to the metaphysical enchantment of Piero della Francesca. This is L’Oro di Dio, a volume of great prestige published by Vallecchi, that traces back more than two centuries of sacred art in the golden masterpieces of Italian painting between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A long progression of peace and harmony marked by sublime paintings by Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Gentile da Fabriano, Masaccio, and Beato Angelico. The title is inspired by a passage of Saint Augustine’s Sermon 15 which he pronounced in 418 in the Basilica of Peter in Carthage: «and so I turn to the gold of God, to the vessels reserved for noble uses, to the grain in the straw when threshed on the threshing-floor ...». Luminous and impenetrable, gold is the symbol of the celestial light that pervades the Universe, an expression of Grace, a sign of God: a source of illumination that radiates in the table, enlivening and elevating it towards the Highest. An anthology of timeless works, of works outside of time, beyond time, L’Oro di Dio recounts the suggestion of the encounter with the profound spirituality of an Art that speaks the language of eternity. A world in which faces, gestures, and sentiments stand out perfect and unchangeable, translating the eagerness for the divine into poetry. Each table, printed with a special technique without cross-hatching, is reproduced in all of its splendour applying hot-worked gold and employing artisanal techniques of an age-old tradition, so that its aesthetic value becomes a reflection of the sacred even for today’s reader. A unique book exclusively presented for Vallecchi by professor Franco Cardini, world-renowned medievalist, who has authored the introductory essay.