Background

Fra Angelico was born approximately in 1395 in Rupecanina, the Tuscan area of Mugello, Republic of Florence (now Vicchio, Tuscany, Italy). He was baptized Guido or Guidolino.

Education

Fra Angelico initially received training as an illuminator, possibly working with his older brother, whose name was Benedetto.

Career

Beginning from 1408 Fra Angelico was at the Dominican friary of Cortona, where he painted frescoes. Fra Angelico started his monastic life in 1418 in the Order of Dominican Preachers at the convent of Fiesole (now Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole), near Florence. The painter's earliest known works were created at the Convent of San Domenico in Fiesole in the late 1420s and early 1430s. The Annunciation of about 1430 (Museo del Gesù, Cortona) and the Linaiuoli Altarpiece (Madonna of the Linen Guild, Museo Nazionale di San Marco, Florence) reveal the essential directions of Fra Angelico's art.

The draperies of Fra Angelico's gentle people are modeled in chiaroscuro, and these Virgins, saints, and angels exist in a world constructed on the principles of linear and atmospheric perspective. Numerous large altarpieces and small tabernacles (Madonnas and Saints, Last Judgments, Coronations of the Virgin) were commissioned from the painter and his flourishing shop in the 1430s.

From 1436 to 1445 Fra Angelico was principally occupied with the fresco program and altarpiece for the Dominican monastery of San Marco in Florence. The church and monastic quarters were newly rebuilt at this time under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, with Michelozzo as an architect for the project. The frescoes by the master and his assistants are situated throughout the cloister, corridors, chapter house, and cells. In the midst of the traditional subjects from the life of Christ, figures of Dominican saints contemplate and meditate upon the sacred events, so that the scenes convey a sense of mystical, devotional transport. At the same time, the dramatic immediacy is heightened by the inclusion of architectural details of San Marco itself in some of the narrative scenes, most notably the Annunciation with its view of a corner of the cloister.

A masterpiece of panel painting created at the same time as the San Marco project is the Deposition altarpiece, commissioned by the Strozzi family for the Church of Santa Trinita. The richly colored and luminous figures, the panoramic views of the Tuscan landscape serving as a backdrop to Calvary, and the forthright division into sacred and secular personages reveal Fra Angelico as an artist in tune with the concepts and methods of the Renaissance. And yet, all of the accomplishments in representation do not diminish the air of religious rapture.

The final decade of Fra Angelico's life was spent mainly in Rome (about 1445-1449 and about 1453-1455) with 3 years in Florence (about 1450-1452) as prior of the Convent of San Domenico in Fiesole, Italy. His principal surviving work of these final years is the frescoes of scenes from the lives of Saints Lawrence and Stephen in the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V in the Vatican, Rome. The dramatic figure groupings serve to summarize the long tradition of the 14th and early 15th-century Florentine fresco painting. In the rigorous construction and abundant classical detail of the architectural backgrounds, the dignity and luxury of a Roman setting are appropriately conveyed.

Achievements

• Fra Angelico was one of the greatest 15th-century painters, whose works within the framework of the early Renaissance style embody a serene religious attitude and reflect a strong Classical influence. Fra Angelico achieved a unique synthesis of the mystical, visionary realms of medieval devotional painting with the Renaissance concern for representing the visually perceived world of mass, space and light.
  
  In 1982 Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official.
  
  

Works

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  • Thebaid

    1410

  • Madonna of Humility

    1418

  • Madonna of Humility

    1419

  • Crucifixion

    1420

  • Crucifixion with the Virgin, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene

    1420

  • Adoration of the Magi

    1424

  • Madonna of the Star

    1424

  • Penitent St. Jerome

    1424

  • Predella of the San Domenico Altarpiece

    1424

  • St. Mark

    1424

  • St. Matthew

    1424

  • St. Michael

    1424

  • St. Nicholas of Bari

    1424

  • Adoration and Annunciation

    1424

  • Madonna of Mercy with Kneeling Friars

    1424

  • A Bishop Saint

    1425

  • Madonna and Child of the Grapes

    1425

  • Glorification of Saint Dominic

    1425

  • St. Peter Martyr Altarpiece

    1428

  • Annunciation

    1428

  • Apparition of St. Francis at Arles

    1429

  • Compagnia di San Francesco Altarpiece

    1429

  • Lamentation over St. Francis

    1429

  • Meeting of St. Francis and St. Dominic

    1429

  • Receiving the Stigmata

    1429

  • The Trial by Fire of St. Francis before the Sultan

    1429

  • Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven

    1430

  • King David Playin a Psaltery

    1430

  • Reliquary Tabernacle

    1430

  • San Domenico Altarpiece

    1430

  • Virgin and Child Enthroned with Twelve Angels

    1430

  • Last Judgment

    1431

  • The Last Judgement. Detail: The Blessed

    1431

  • Dormition of the Virgin

    1432

  • Marriage of the Virgin

    1432

  • Adoration of the Magi

    1433

  • Archangel Gabriel Annunciate

    1433

  • Linaioli Tabernacle

    1433

  • Madonna and Child

    1433

  • St. Peter Preaching in the Presence of St. Mark

    1433

  • The Martyrdom of St. Mark

    1433

  • Virgin Mary Annunciate

    1433

  • Birth of the Virgin

    1434

  • Death of the Virgin

    1434

  • The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

    1434

  • The Virgin Consigns the Habit to St. Dominic

    1434

  • Visitation

    1434

  • Annalena Altarpiece

    1435

  • The Apostle St. James the Great Freeing the Magician Hermogenes

    1435

  • The Burial of the Virgin and the Reception of Her Soul in Heaven

    1435

Views

Quotations: "He who does Christ's work must stay with Christ always."

"I can paint pictures, but I cannot rule men."

"He who wishes to paint Christ's story must live with Christ."

Connections

Brother:

Benedetto da Fiesole

Benedetto da Fiesole, also known as Benedetto da Mugello, was an Italian artist.

References

• Through the Rosary With Fra Angelico
  1989
• Fra Angelico (Painters Series)
  2017
• Fra Angelico: Heaven on Earth
  2018
• Masters Of Art: Fra Angelico (Masters of Italian Art)
  2013
• Fra Angelico
  2008
• Fra Angelico: Colour Library
  1998
• Fra Angelico: The Light of the Soul- Painting Panels and Frescoes from the Convent of San Marco, Florence
  1986
• The Rosary with Fra Angelico and Giotto
  2005
• Fra Angelico (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)
  2005
• Fra Angelico at San Marco
  1993
• Fra Angelico
  1981