James P. Monson (b. 1943)
1994
Woodcut printed in colors on Misumi Japanese paper
14/80
Art Collection purchase
2001.16.2
Inspired by Paolo Uccello, The Flood, 1447-48
Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Image source
Jim Monson, a teacher of printmaking who studied with the notable Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17, created a pair of color woodcuts in honor of the early Renaissance painter and mathematician Paolo Uccello. The print that accompanies this one is titled Uccello’s Geometry. Uccello was fascinated with the science of vanishing point perspective and made significant inroads towards development of the technique in two dimensions. This colorful woodcut incorporates some of the vibrant energy of Uccello’s famous panels of the Battle of San Romano (ca. 1435-1455), created for the Palazzo Medici in Florence.
The motif of the checkerboard ring is taken from Uccello’s mural panels depicting the Biblical story of the flood. These paintings decorating the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence are hailed for their close approximation of vanishing point perspective. In Uccello’s Ring, Monson translates Uccello’s geometrical forms into an abstraction of three-dimensional shapes and color in space.