Fra Angelico &
Fra Filippo Lippi
By: Sharon J. and Christine T.
Fra Angelico
• “He was kind to other people and moderate, lived
chastely and far from the temptations of this
world. He would often say that anyone practicing
the art of painting needed a quiet and untroubled
life, and that the man who portrayed the words of
Christ should live with Christ.
Fra Angelico
• Fra Angelico was born
Guidolino di Pietro, around
1395 in Vicchio di Mugello.
• He died in Rome in 1455.
• He was a contemporary of
Brunelleschi, Donatello and
Masaccio.
Fra Angelico
• His work was a
product of his life as a
monk.
• Painting was his
vocation and his
works were created to
adorn churches and
monasteries.
Fra Angelico
• His earliest paintings
were probably manuscript
illumination.
• Fra Angelico’s brother,
who entered monastic life
with him, was a scribe.
Fra Angelico
• At Fiesoli he produced his
first known works.
– An altarpiece for the high
altar.
– The Annunciateion (now in
the Prado).
Fra Angelico
• His use of perspective is sti
in the Byzantine tradition o
inverse perspective, placing
the viewer as the point of
view of the figures in the
icon - instead of the other
way around. The intent is t
place the viewer in divine,
not human, space.
Fra Angelico
• In another
work, his
Deposition, we
see a painting
that owes much
to Masaccio in
terms of its
presentation of
subjects and
space.
Fra Angelico
H.W. Janson describes
Fra Angelico’s art as
“…something of a
paradox. The deeply
reverential attitude
presents an admixture
of traditional Gothic
piety and Renaissance
grandeur bestilled by
contemplative calm.”
Fra Angelico
• His St. Nicholas of Bari depicts two miracles of the saint,
who appears twice – as a saint in the sky above and
thanking a merchant in the bottom left of the painting.
Fra Angelico
• In 1436 he and his
Dominican brothers
moved to San Marco,
in Florence.
• Here, some of his
most famous works
adorn the monks’
cells.
• These were intended
to assist in prayer.
Fra Angelico
• Other hugely
important works adorn
the altarpiece.
Fra Angelico
• His fame brought him
commissions from two
popes. – Eugenius and
Nicholas.
Fra Angelico
• Other important
works were
commissioned
for the cathedral
of Orvieto, in
Italy.
Fra Angelico
• This quiet, good man, was
beatified by Pope John
Paul II in 1984.
• The Roman Catholic
Church celebrates
February 18 as his feast
day – commemorating his
death in 1455.
Fra Filippo Lippi
‘Fra Filippo Lippi was gracious and
ornate and exceedingly skilful; he
was very good at compositions and
at variety, at coloring, relief, and in
ornaments of every kind', wrote
Cristoforo Landino in 1480; his
comment remains a valid assessment
of Fra Filippo's style
Fra Filippo Lippi
As an orphan Filippo was sent
to the Carmelite friary in
Florence. But he was not
temperamentally suited to be a
friar. His life is a tale of
lawsuits, complaints, broken
promises and scandal.
Fra Filippo Lippi
- Not all Florentine painting during the mid
15th century was of a religious nature, during
this time portraiture comes into its own as a
major form of artistic expression.
- One of the most famous of these portrait
artists was Lippi
-His painting called Portrait of a Woman and
Man 1435-1445 (left) is one of the earliest
surviving double portraits of the Renaissance
- The exact reason for the painting still
remains a mystery
Fra Filippo Lippi
Madonna and Child with
Angles, c. 1455, tempera
on wood
Fra Filippo Lippi/ linear
style/ use of models
Fra Filippo Lippi.
Madonna
Adoring Christ,
1450s