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Fra
Angelico
Angelico,
Fra (c. 1400-1455), Italian painter of the
early Renaissance, who combined the life
of a devout friar with that of an
accomplished painter. He was originally
called Guido di Pietro and was named
Angelico (Italian "angelic") and Beato
(Italian "blessed") because of the calm,
religious subjects of his paintings and
because of his extraordinary personal
piety.
In
Fiesole
Fra Angelico was born in Vicchio,
Tuscany. He entered a Dominican monastery
in Fiesole in 1418 and about 1425 became a
friar, using the name Giovanni da Fiesole.
His teacher is unknown, but he apparently
began his career as an illuminator of
missals and other religious books. His
earliest paintings were altarpieces and
other panels; among his important early
works are the Madonna of the Star (c.
1428-1433, San Marco, Florence) and Christ
in Glory Surrounded by Saints and Angels
(National Gallery, London), which depicts
more than 250 distinct figures. Among
other works of that period are two
paintings of the Coronation of the Virgin
(San Marco and Louvre, Paris) and a
Deposition and Last Judgement (San Marco).
His mature style is first seen in the
Madonna of the Linen Weavers (1433, San
Marco), which features a border with 12
music-making angels.
In
Florence and Rome
In 1436 the Dominicans of Fiesole
moved to the monastery of San Marco in
Florence, which had recently been rebuilt
by Michelozzo. Fra Angelico, sometimes
aided by assistants, painted many frescoes
for the cloister, chapter house, and
entrances to the 20 cells on the upper
corridors. The most impressive of these
are the Crucifixion, Christ as a Pilgrim,
and Transfiguration. His altarpiece for
San Marco (c. 1439) is one of the first
representations of what is known as a
Sacred Conversation: the Madonna flanked
by angels and saints who seem to share a
common space.
In
1445 Fra Angelico was summoned to Rome by
Pope Eugenius IV to paint frescoes for the
now-destroyed Chapel of the Sacrament in
the Vatican. In 1447, with his pupil
Benozzo Gozzoli, he painted frescoes for
Orvieto Cathedral. His last important
works, frescoes for the chapel of Pope
Nicholas in the Vatican, are Scenes from
the Lives of SS Stephen and Lawrence
(1447-1449), probably painted from his
designs by assistants. From 1449 to 1452
Fra Angelico was prior of his monastery in
Fiesole. He died in the Dominican
monastery in Rome on March 18,
1455.
Fra
Angelico combined the influence of the
elegantly decorative Gothic style of
Gentile da Fabriano with the more
realistic style of such major Renaissance
artists as the painter Masaccio and the
sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, all of
whom worked in Florence. Fra Angelico was
also aware of the theories of perspective
proposed by Leon Battista Alberti. Fra
Angelico's rendering of devout facial
expressions and his use of colour to
heighten emotion are particularly
effective. His skill in creating
monumental figures, conveying a sense of
motion, and suggesting depth through the
use of linear perspective, especially in
the Roman frescoes, mark him as one of the
foremost painters of the
Renaissance.
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