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FRA ANGELICO
a rare and perfect talent
Synopsis
A documentary of spectacular richness
and intriguing history
This is the story of the artist, Fra Angelico,
a Dominican friar, who would herald the beginning
of the Renaissance in 15th century Florence, Italy.
In a time when the Medici family ruled Florence,
Popes made Rome the seat of power and glory,
and architects, sculptors and painters changed the way the human figure, space and light were forever seen, Fra Angelico stands out as a rare and perfect talent.*
*Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects
Guido di Pietro, known as Fra Angelico was born in the Republic of Florence around 1395 in a small town in the rural region of Tuscany called the Mugello. The earliest document mentioning Fra Angelico dates from October 17, 1417 which names him as a painter in the town of Vicchio.
In 1418-1419, he became a member of the Dominican Order at Fiesole, a small town not far from Florence. In the years following, Fra Angelico's early works included altarpieces, Madonna and child paintings and a myriad of other religious works. At the same time in Florence, Filippo Brunelleschi and Masaccio were experimenting with the drawing buildings in space, the technique of painting perspective.
By 1436, Fra Angelico was one of the Dominican friars who moved to convent of San Marco in Florence. The convent had belonged to Silvestrian Order but Pope Eugenius along with Cosimo deMedici mandated that the Dominican take possession and in 1437 renovations of San Marco began. Cosimo deMedici commission Fra _Angelico
to fresco the chapter house, the dormitory cells and
the corridors of the newly renovated SanMarco.
FraAngelicoBio
San Marco
San Marco Convent in Florence
In 1438, Cosimo de' Medici funded the restructuring of the Dominican Convent of San Marco, and included in the design a two room cell for his retreat. He commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate his cells with the Adoration of the Magi and Man of Sorrows and a Crucifixion for his personal devotion. He also commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate the entire convent including the cells of the friars' dorter or dormitory with devotional frescos. With the help of his assistants, Fra Angelico painted forty-three frescos that acted as a spiritual guide to life in the Dominican community.
The Annunciation
Cosimo de'Medici's cell
Madona of the Pomegranite
The Virgin of the Pomegranite 1426 detail
The Virgin of the Pomegranate is one of a series of the Virgin and child compositions that Fra Angelico painted in the 1420s which reveal his increasing mastery of anatomy, light and space.
The Virgin of the Pomegranate takes its name from the pomegranate held by the Virgin and attracts the attention of the Christ Child, who touches it. The fruit has a double meaning: in the Virgin’s hands it refers to her chastity, and by touching it, the Christ Child prefigures his own death and resurrection.
Occupied with the extensive project at San Marco between 1438 and 1443, Fra Angelico produced relatively few independent panel paintings during this time. He moved to Rome in 1445 where, over the next four years, he frescoed a number of chapels in the Vatican Palace for Pope Eugenius IV and his successor Nicholas V.
The Niccoline Chapel, the Vatican
Pope Nicholas V's chief interest in the realm of arts was the embellishment of Rome.It has been suggested that Papal wealth was acceptable so long as it was expended to the glory of God and the good of the Church. The decoration of his newly built private Vatican chapel, the Niccoline Chapel, by Fra Angelico, in 1447-48, demonstrated this message through its depictions of St Lawrence (martyred for refusing to hand to the Roman state the wealth of the Church) and St Stephen.
Niccoline Chapel
Perhaps Fra Angelico's last work was the Armadio degli Argenti (Italian: Wardrobe of the Silversmiths), a series of 1451-1453 tempera on panel paintings.The panels were completed later by other hands using his preparatory drawings.This panel is one of four that decorated a large cupboard-like chest. The chest contained highly valuable silver votive offerings that were donated by the faithful of Florence to the Church of Santissima Annunziata.
Anchor 1
FRA ANGELICO.
1387—1455.
"The art of Angelico, both as a colorist and a draughtsman, is consummate; so perfect and so beautiful that his work may be recognized at a distance by the rainbow-play and brilliancy of it: however closely it may be surrounded by other works of the same school, glowing with enamel and gold, Angelico's may be told from them at a glance, like so many huge pieces of opal among common marbles." John Ruskin
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome
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