Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico, OP (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395[1] – 18 February 1455) was a Dominican friar and Italian Renaissance painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent".[2] He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence,[3] then worked in Rome and other cities. All his known work is of religious subjects.
Not to be confused with Frangelico.
Fra Angelico
He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Friar John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One);[4] the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".
In 1982, Pope John Paul II beatified him[5] in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the town where he had taken his vows as a Dominican friar,[6] and would have been used by contemporaries to distinguish him from others with the same forename, Giovanni. He is commemorated by the current Roman Martyrology on 18 February,[7] the date of his death in 1455. There the Latin text reads Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed John of Fiesole, surnamed 'the Angelic'".
Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "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."[2]
Biography[edit]
Early life, 1395–1436[edit]
Fra Angelico was born Guido di Pietro in the hamlet of Rupecanina[8] in the Tuscan area of Mugello near Fiesole, not far from Florence, towards the end of the 14th century. Nothing is known of his parents. He was baptised Guido. As a child, he was probably known, as was the Italian fashion, as Guidolino ("Little Guido"). The earliest recorded document concerning Fra Angelico dates from 17 October 1417, when he joined a religious confraternity or guild at the Carmine Church, still under the name Guido di Pietro. This record indicates that he was already a painter, as is evident from two records of payment to Guido di Pietro in January and February 1418, for work done in the church of Santo Stefano del Ponte.[9] The first record of Angelico as a friar dates from 1423, the first reference to Fra Giovanni (Friar John), following the custom of those entering one of the older religious orders of taking a new name.[10] He was a member of the convent of Fiesole. The Dominican Order is one of the medieval mendicant Orders. Mendicants generally lived not from the income of estates but from begging or donations. Fra, a contraction of frater (Latin for 'brother'), is a conventional title for a mendicant friar.
According to Vasari, Fra Angelico's initial training was as an illuminator, possibly working with his older brother Benedetto, also a Dominican and an illuminator. The former Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence, now a state museum, holds several manuscripts thought to be entirely or partly by his hand.[2] The painter Lorenzo Monaco may have contributed to his art training; the influence of the Sienese school is discernible in his work. He trained also with master Varricho in Milan[11] Despite quite a few moves of the convents where he lived, this did little to constrain his artistic output, which rapidly acquired a reputation. According to Vasari, his first paintings were an altarpiece and a painted screen for the Charterhouse (Carthusian monastery) of Florence. Nothing remains of these today.[2]
From 1408 to 1418, Fra Angelico was at the Dominican friary of Cortona, where he painted frescoes, mostly now destroyed, in the Dominican Church, and may have been assistant to Gherardo Starnina, or a follower of his.[12] Between 1418 and 1436 he was back in Fiesole, where he executed a number of frescoes for the church and the Fiesole Altarpiece. This was allowed to deteriorate, but has since been restored. A predella of the altarpiece remains intact and is conserved in the National Gallery, London; a great example of Fra Angelico's genius. It shows Christ in Glory surrounded by more than 250 figures, including beatified Dominicans. This period saw the painting of some of his masterpieces, including a version of The Madonna of Humility. This is well preserved and the property of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, on loan to the MNAC of Barcelona. Also completed at this time were an Annunciation and a Madonna of the Pomegranate, at the Prado Museum.