Comparative Civilizations 12
K.J. Benoy
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 practising
the art of painting needed a quiet and untroubled
life, and that the man who portrayed the words of
Christ should live with Christ. In short, this monk
cannot be praised highly enough, for he was
humble and modest in every word and deed, and
skillful and reverent in his paintings. The saints
which he portrayed resembled true saints more
closely than those done by any other artist.”
» Giorgio Vasari, 1568
Fra Angelico
• Fra Angelico was born
Guidolino di Pietro, around
1395 in Vicchio di Mugello.
• He died in Rome in 1455.
• He became a Dominican monk
and remained one for most of
his life. He took the name
Giovanni da Fiesole, but is now
known to all as Fra Angelico –
“Brother Angel.”
• 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.
Fiesoli, the Tuscan
hillside town where Fra
Angelic first worked.
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).
– The Coronation of the
Virgin (Now in the Louvre).
– …and numerous frescoes in
the chapter room and
convent.
Fra Angelico
• Fra Angelico is a
Renaissance painter, but he
continued to employ more
traditional techniques.
• 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.”
Noli mi Tangere
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
• Fra Angelico uses perspective in places in this painting, while
ignoring it elsewhere. See the bowsprit of the ship. Also note
how light, which gives spatial depth, strikes the figures from
the front left, and the mountains from the rear left.
• Figures are shown in tremendous detail, while the landscape is
given in simplified form.
• Curiously, the painting works, regardless of these oddities.
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.
The Transfiguration
Fra Angelico
Other hugely
important works adorn
the altarpiece.
The Decapitation of Saints Cosmas and Damian
Fra Angelico
• His fame brought him
commissions from two
popes. – Eugenius and
Nicholas.
The Ordination of St. Lawrence
Fra Angelico
• Other important
works were
commissioned
for the cathedral
of Orvieto, in
Italy.
Christ in Majesty
Fra Angelico
• Above all, Fra Angelico is
known for the quiet
serenity of his works.
• 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.
Finis