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ANGELICO, Fra
Italian painter, Florentine school (b. cca. 1400, Vicchio nell Mugello, d. 1455,
Roma)
Biography
Fra Angelico was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance who combined the life
of a devout friar with that of an accomplished painter. He was called Angelico (Italian
for ìangelicî) and Beato (Italian for ìblessedî) because
the paintings he did were of calm, religious subjects and because of his extraordinary
personal piety.
In Fiesole
Originally named Guido di Pietro, Angelico was born in Vicchio, Tuscany. He entered
a Dominican convent in Fiesole in 1418 and became a friar using the name Giovanni
da Fiesole. Although his teacher is unknown, he apparently began his career as an
illuminator of missals and other religious books. He began to paint altarpieces and
other panels; among his important early works are the Madonna of the Star (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 of the Coronation of the Virgin (San Marco and Louvre, Paris)
and The Deposition and The Last Judgment (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 some of the Dominican friars of Fiesole moved to the convent of San Marco
in Florence, which had recently been rebuilt by Michelozzo. 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 (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 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 the cathedral in Orvieto. His last important works, frescoes for the
chapel of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican, are Scenes from the Lives of Saints Stephen
and Lawrence (1447-1449), probably painted from his designs by assistants.
From 1449 to 1452 Angelico was prior of his convent in Fiesole. He died in the Dominican
convent in Rome on March 18, 1455.
Angelico combined the influence of the elegantly decorative Gothic style of Gentile
da Fabriano with the more realistic style of such Renaissance masters as the painter
Masaccio and the sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, all of whom worked in Florence.
Angelico was also aware of the theories of perspective proposed by Leon Battista
Alberti. Angelico's representation of devout facial expressions and his use of color
to heighten emotion are particularly effective. His skill in creating monumental
figures, representing motion, and suggesting deep space 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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