Fra Angelico, (c.
1395
–
February 18,
1455)
was an Early
Italian Renaissance
painter, referred to in
Vasari's
Lives of the Artists
as having "a rare and perfect talent".
Known in Italy as il Beato Angelico, he was known to
his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole
(Brother John from Fiesole). In
Giorgio Vasari’s
Lives of the Artists, written prior to 1555, he is
already known as Fra Giovanni Angelico (Brother
Giovanni the Angelic One).
Within his lifetime, or shortly thereafter, he was also called
Il Beato (the Blessed), in reference to his skills in
painting religious subjects.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II
conferred
beatification,
thereby making this title official.
Fiesole
is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal
name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took
his vows, used by contemporaries to separate him from other
Fra Giovannis. He is listed in the
Roman Martyrology
as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed
Giovanni of Fiesole, nicknamed Angelico".
The 16th century biographer Vasari says of him: "But it is
impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father,
who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and
whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."
Early Life 1395-1436 Fra Angelico was born Guido di Pietro,
at
Rupecanina,
in the
Tuscan
area of
Mugello,
near
Fiesole
towards the end of the
14th century
and died in
Rome
in
1455.
Nothing is known of his parents. He was baptized Guido or
Guidolino. The earliest recorded document concerning Fra
Angelico dates from Oct. 17, 1417 when he joined a religious
confraternity at the Carmine, still under the name of Guido
di Pietro. This record also reveals that he was already a
painter, a fact that is subsequently confirmed by two
records of payment to Guido di Pietro in January and
February of 1418 for work done in the church of Santo
Stefano del Ponte. The first record of Angelico as a friar dates from 1423,
when he is first referred to as Fra Giovanni, following the
custom of those in Holy Orders of taking a new name.
He was a member of the Observant Branch of the
Dominican Order
at Fiesole.
Fra Angelico initially received training as
an
illuminator,
possibly working with his older brother Benedetto who was
also a Dominican. His illumination tutor is unknown.
San Marco
in Florence holds several manuscripts that are thought to be
entirely or partly completed by his hand. The painter
Lorenzo Monaco
may have contributed to his art training, and the influence
of the
Sienese school
is discernible in his work. He had several important charges
in the
convents
he lived in but this did not limit his art which very soon
became famous. According to
Vasari,
the first paintings of this artist were an
altarpiece
and a painted screen for the
Carthusian Monastery
of
Florence;
none such exist there now.
From 1408 to 1418 Fra Angelico was at the
Dominican Convent
of Cortona where he painted frescoes, now destroyed, in the
Dominican Church and may have been assistant to or follower
of
Gherardo Starnina.
Between 1418 and 1436 he was at the convent of Fiesole where
he also executed a number of frescoes for the church, and
the Altarpiece, deteriorated but restored. A predella of the
Altarpiece remains intact in the
National Gallery, London
which is a superb example of Fra Angelico's ability. It
shows Christ in Glory, surrounded by more than 250 figures,
including beatified Dominicans.
San Marco, Florence,
1436–1445
In 1436, Fra Angelico was one of a number of the monks from
Fiesole who moved to the newly-built monastery of San Marco
in Florence. This was an important move which put him in the
centre of artistic activity of the region and brought about
the patronage of one of the wealthiest and most powerful
members of the city's Signoria,
Cosimo de' Medici,
who had a large cell (later occupied by Savonarola) reserved
for himself at the monastery in order that he might retreat
from the world. It was, according to Vasari, at Cosimo's
urging that Fra Angelico set about the task of decorating
the monastery, including the magnificent Chapter House
fresco, the often-reproduced Annunciation at the top of the
stairs to the cells, the Maesta with Saints and the many
smaller devotional frescoes depicting aspects of the Life of
Christ that adorn the walls of each cell.
In 1439 he completed one of his most famous works, the
Altarpiece for St. Marco's, Florence. The result was unusual
for its times. Images of the enthroned Madonna and Child
surrounded by saints were common, but they usually depicted
a setting that was clearly heavenlike, in which saints and
angels hovered about as divine presences rather than people.
But in this instance, the saints stand squarely within the
space, grouped in a natural way as if they were able to
converse about the shared experience of witnessing the
Virgin in glory. Paintings such as this, known as
Sacred Conversations,
were to become the major commissions of
Giovanni Bellini,
Perugino
and
Raphael.
The Vatican,1445-1455 In 1445
Pope Eugenius IV
summoned him to Rome to paint the frescoes of the Chapel of
the
Holy Sacrament
at
St Peter's,
later demolished by
Pope Paul III.
Vasari claims that at this time Fra Angelico was offered by
Pope Nicholas V
the
Archbishopric of Florence,
and that he refused it, recommending another Friar for the
position. While the story seems possible and even likely, if Vasari's date is correct, then the
Pope must have been Eugenius and not Nicholas. In 1447 Fra Angelico was in
Orvieto
with his pupil,
Benozzo Gozzoli,
executing works for the
Cathedral.
Among his other pupils were
Zanobi Strozzi.
From 1447 to 1449 he was back at the Vatican, designing the
frescoes for the
Niccoline Chapel
for Nicholas V. The scenes from the lives of the two
martyred Deacons of the Early Christian Church,
St. Stephen
and
St. Lawrence
may have been executed wholly or in part by assistants. The
small chapel, with its brightly frescoed walls and gold leaf
decorations gives the impression of a jewel box. From 1449
until 1452, Fra Angelico was back at his old convent of
Fiesole, where he was the Prior.
In 1455 Fra Angelico died while staying at a Dominican
Convent in Rome, perhaps in order to work on Pope Nicholas'
Chapel. He was buried in the church of
Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
Artistic Legacy Through Fra
Angelico's pupil Benozzo Gozzoli’s careful portraiture and
technical expertise in the art of fresco we see a link to
Ghirlandaio,
who in turn painted extensive schemes for the wealthy
patrons of Florence, and through Ghirlandaio to his pupil
Michelangelo
and the High Renaissance.
Apart from the lineal connection,
superficially there may seem little to link the humble
priest with his sweetly pretty
Madonnas
and timeless
Crucifixions
to the dynamic expressions of Michelangelo’s
larger than life creations. But both these artists received
their most important commissions from the wealthiest and
most powerful of all patrons, the Vatican.
When Michelangelo took up the Sistine
Chapel commission, he was working within a space that had
already been extensively decorated by other artists. Around
the walls the Life of Christ and Life of Moses
were depicted by a range of artists including his teacher
Ghirlandaio,
Raphael’s
teacher
Perugino
and
Botticelli.
They were works of large scale and exactly the sort of
lavish treatment to be expected in a Vatican commission,
vying with each other in complexity of design, number of
figures, elaboration of detail and skilful use of gold leaf.
Above these works stood a row of painted Popes in brilliant
brocades and gold tiaras. None of these splendours have any
place in the work which Michelangelo created. Michaelangelo,
when asked by
Pope Julius II
to ornament the robes of the Apostles in the usual way,
responded that they were very poor men.
Within the cells of San’Marco, Fra
Angelico had demonstrated that painterly skill and the
artist’s personal interpretation were sufficient to create
memorable works of art, without the expensive trappings of
blue and gold. In the use of the unadorned fresco technique,
the clear bright pastel colours, the careful arrangement of
a few significant figures and the skilful use of expression,
motion and gesture, Michelangelo showed himself to be the
artistic descendant of Fra Angelico. Frederick Hartt
describes Fra Angelico as "prophetic of the mysticism" of
painter such as
Rembrandt,
El Greco
and
Zurbaran.
