This sumptuous coffee-table book is also an important publication for art historians. It is the first modern survey of Renaissance intarsia work. Intarsia, monochrome "painting" in natural wood inlay, was a major noble craft art of the Renaissance. Though its makers worked at the highest level of artistic ability, often in collaboration with top painters and architects, the contemporary prejudice against any art form but painting has kept intarsia in obscurity. This book surveys twelve major cycles of well-preserved high-level intarsia work (including the studiolo of Frederico da Montefeltro, the sacristy of Santa Maria in Organo at Verona, and the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo). The iconography and context of each suite is explained by an expert author; photographs of paintings from the same era are included as needed. The book is edited by Luca Trevisan. The excellent large-scale color photography is by Luca Sassi. It offers amazing full page images that seem impossible as wood inlay, along with close-ups that make the truth clear, mid-range shots that show the works in their architectural context (framing and trompe d'oiel context effects are preserved here which are often lost from paintings of the same era), and interior shots that show the mind-boggling scale of a whole suite. The intarsias themselves combine visual aspects of painting, printmaking, fresco, and architecture. They are breathtakingly golden and lovely, and surrealistically rigorous: haunting exercises in perspective, still life, and landscape, sometimes with holy figures. Both Paolo Ucello and Georgio di Chirco seem to have learned from them. The text is translated from the Italian by Marguerite Shore. It is easy and pleasant to read, a fine achievement for a technical book. A final essay by Paolo Pizzati explains how intarsia work was done, and there is a scholarly bibliography. Of interest to general readers seeking a beautiful art book, to artists seeking new inspiration, and to scholars of Renaissance art. Oversize: 11x13". Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)