Angelico created a series offrescoes for the Dominican convent ofSan Marco inFlorence, where he received the patronage ofCosimo de' Medici. His works include theSan Marco Altarpiece and theDeposition of Christ, both made for the convent of San Marco. Painting exclusively religious subjects throughout his career, Angelico completed commissions in Rome under the patronage ofPopesEugene IV andNicholas V. Angelico was a pioneer of the artistic trends that came to distinguish the early Renaissance, namelylinear perspective and a greater attention to depth and form than had been practised in the late Medieval period.[1]
Angelico wasbeatified byPope John Paul II in 1982. In 1984, John Paul declared him the patron of Catholic artists.
He was known to his contemporaries asFra Giovanni da Fiesole ("Friar John ofFiesole"), reflecting the town where he joined the Dominican order, andFra Giovanni Angelico ("Angelic Brother John"). In modern Italian, he is referred to as Beato Angelico ("Blessed Angelic One") following hisbeatification by Pope John Paul II.
Fra Angelico was born around 1395[2] inMugello, nearFiesole inTuscany. He was baptised Guido di Pietro and had a younger brother namedBenedetto. The earliest known record of him is dated 17 October 1417, when he joined a religious confraternity or guild at theCarmine Church under the name Guido di Pietro. Payments made to Guido di Pietro in January and February 1418 for work at the church ofSanto Stefano del Ponte inFlorence indicate that he was already working as a painter.[3]
By 1423, Angelico had joined theconvent of San Domenico in Fiesole. Following the custom of adopting a new name upon entering areligious order, he adopted the nameFra Giovanni (Friar John).[4] As aDominican, he relied on alms and donations for his livelihood. Angelico initially trained as a manuscriptilluminator and may have collaborated with his brother Benedetto, who also joined the Dominican Order. Several manuscripts with illuminations attributed to him are preserved at the former Dominican convent ofSan Marco, now a state museum.[5] His artistic training may have included instruction fromLorenzo Monaco, and influences from theSienese school are evident in his work.[6] Angelico trained with Master Varricho in Milan.[7] According toGiorgio Vasari, Angelico's first major work was analtarpiece and a painted screen for theCharterhouse (Carthusian monastery) ofFlorence, though nothing remains of these today.[5]
In 1436, Angelico was one of a number of friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly built convent of San Marco in Florence. This move placed him at the heart of the artistic life of the region. During these years in Florence, he was certainly in contact with the three artistic circles in the city in the early 15th century: the school of miniaturists, the workshops of the last Giottesque students (followers ofGiotto), and a group of young sculptors and architects destined for great fame:Jacopo della Quercia,Lorenzo Ghiberti,Filippo Brunelleschi andDonatello.[11]
Angelico soon attracted the patronage ofCosimo de' Medici, one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the city's governing authority (or "Signoria"), and founder of theMedici Dynasty that was to dominate Florentine politics for much of the Renaissance. Cosimo had acell reserved for himself at the convent as a retreat from the world. Vasari reports that Cosimo commissioned Angelico to decorate the convent with frescoes, which were greatly admired at the time.[12] They include the magnificent fresco of the Chapter House, the much-reproducedAnnunciation at the top of the stairs leading to the cells, the Maesta (or Coronation of the Madonna) with Saints (cell 9), and many other smaller devotional frescoes in the cells depicting stories of theNativity andPassion of Jesus.[5]
In his early works, Angelico retained a Gothic style. In the small tabernacles of San Marco, however, the adroit simplicity of his compositions and colours shows traces of the mature style that was to characterise his works. In hisDeposition of Christ, produced for the Strozzi Chapel inSanta Trinita, he reached the full expression of this style. In this painting, the naturalistic spirit of the 15th century is affirmed by the lifelike figures, who possess a variety of expressions and gestures, as well as in the representation of a naturalistic landscape, which replaced the traditionalgold ground typical of the Gothic period.
In 1439, Angelico completed one of his most famous and influential works: theSan Marco Altarpiece. It created a new religious genre,Sacra Conversazione (Sacred Conversation), later used by artists includingGiovanni Bellini,Titian,Perugino andRaphael.[13] Although representations of the enthronedMadonna and Child surrounded by saints were common, they were depicted in a heaven-like setting, hovering as ethereal presences rather than with earthly substance. In theSan Marco Altarpiece, the saints stand squarely within the space, grouped in a natural way as if conversing about their shared witness of the Virgin in glory.
In 1445,Pope Eugene IV summoned Angelico to Rome to paint the frescoes of the Chapel of theHoly Sacrament atSt Peter's, later demolished byPope Paul III. Vasari suggests that at this time Angelico was offered theArchbishopric of Florence byPope Nicholas V, which he rejected, recommending another friar in his place. However, the story does not align with the historical facts. In 1445 the Pope wasEugene IV and Nicholas was not to be elected until two years later in March 1447. The archbishop in question during 1446–1459 was the DominicanAntoninus of Florence (Antonio Pierozzi), who was canonised byPope Adrian VI in 1523.[original research?]
From 1447 to 1449, Angelico was again at the Vatican, designing the frescoes for theNiccoline Chapel for Nicholas V. The scenes from the lives of the two martyreddeacons of the Early Christian Church,St. Stephen andSt. Lawrence may have been executed wholly or in part by assistants. The small chapel, with its brightly frescoed walls and gold leaf decorations, gives the impression of a jewel box. From 1449 until 1452, Angelico was back at his old convent of Fiesole, where he became thePrior.[5][15]
Fra Angelico died in 1455 while staying at a Dominican convent in Rome, perhaps on an order to work on Pope Nicholas' chapel. He was buried in the church ofSanta Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome.[5][15][16] Angelico was interred in a niche near the altar in a marble tomb, an honour for an artist of the period.[tone] The tombstone is aneffigy carved inrelief depicting Angelico in a Dominican habit. Above the tomb are two epitaphs, probably byLorenzo Valla.[citation needed] The first reads:
Give me not praise for being anotherApelles, But say, rather, that in the name of Christ, that I gave all I had to the poor. The deeds that count on Earth are not the ones that count in Heaven. That city which is the flower ofEtruria bore me, Giovanni.[5]
In this place is enshrined the glory, the mirror, and the ornament of painters, John the Florentine. A religious and a true servant of God, he was a brother of the holy Order of Saint Dominic. His disciples mourn the death of such a great master, for who will find another brush like his? His homeland and his order mourn the death of a distinguished painter, who had no equal in his art.
From various accounts of Fra Angelico's life, it is possible to gain some sense of why he was deserving of canonization. He led the devout and ascetic life of a Dominican friar, and never rose above that rank; he followed the dictates of the order in caring for the poor; he was always good-humored. All of his many paintings were of divine subjects, and it seems that he never altered or retouched them, perhaps from a religious conviction that, because his paintings were divinely inspired, they should retain their original form. He was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should be with Christ. It is averred that he never handled a brush without fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion.The Last Judgment and the Annunciation were two of the subjects he most frequently treated.[17][15]
Pope John Paul II beatified Angelico on 3 October 1982 and in 1984 declared him patron of Catholic artists.[18] John Paul II noted that:
Angelico was reported to say "He who does Christ's work must stay with Christ always". This motto earned him the epithet "Blessed Angelico", because of the perfect integrity of his life and the almost divine beauty of the images he painted, to a superlative extent those of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[citation needed]
He is commemorated by the current RomanMartyrology on 18 February,[19] the date of his death in 1455. There the Latin text readsBeatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus ("Blessed John of Fiesole, known as the Angelic").
The Day of Judgement, upper panel of an altarpiece in the convent of San Marco, Florence. (1425–1430)AThebaide, showing the activities in the lives of the saints, 1420
Angelico worked during a period of significant change in European artistic style, marked by the transition from theMedieval tradition to theEarly Renaissance. This shift began in the late fourteenth century with artists such asGiotto and his contemporaries, includingGiusto de' Menabuoi.[citation needed] Both produced major works inPadua, while Giotto had earlier trained inFlorence under the Gothic painterCimabue.[citation needed]
Giotto's fresco cycle depicting the life ofSaint Francis in the Bardi Chapel atSanta Croce in Florence represented a departure from earlier conventions through its emphasis on naturalism, spatial coherence, and emotional expression. His approach influenced a number of later painters who adopted and expanded upon his techniques. Among these artists werePietro andAmbrogio Lorenzetti, whose work further developed narrative clarity and realism, contributing to the artistic foundations upon which Angelico and other Early Renaissance painters would build.[13]
The works of Angelico combine elements of the lateGothic tradition with emergingRenaissance principles. In theCoronation of the Virgin, an altarpiece painted for the Florentine church ofSanta Maria Novella, Angelico employed features typical of prestigious fourteenth-century altarpieces, including a finely worked gold ground and extensive use of azurite and vermilion pigments. The gilded haloes and gold-edged garments reflect the refined decorative conventions of Gothic painting.
At the same time, the work demonstrates characteristics associated with the Renaissance. In contrast to earlier Gothic examples, such as altarpieces by Gentile da Fabriano, Angelico's figures are rendered with greater solidity, three-dimensional form, and naturalism. The drapery of the garments follows the structure of the bodies beneath, and the figures convey a sense of physical weight, despite being depicted standing on clouds rather than on solid ground.
TheTransfiguration shows the directness, simplicity and restrained palette typical of these frescoes. Located in a monk's cell at the Convent San' Marco, its apparent purpose is to encourage private devotion.
Angelico produced a series offrescoes for the cells of San Marco that sustained Masaccio's artistic achievements. Thedormitory of San Marco comprises three corridors with thirty-eight internal cells, each of which Angelico decorated with frescoes depicting scenes of the life of Jesus in loose narrative order.
The fresoes are the same shape as the arched window and vaulted ceiling of each cell. Most of the works are simple in composition and use simple colours; there is more mauvish-pink than there is red, and the brilliant blue paint seen in theSan Marco Altarpiece andThe Day of Judgement is almost entirely absent. In its place are muted greens alongside the black and white of Dominican robes. The simplicity of decoration and style reflects the Dominican Rule's focus on charity, and the cells contain no other decorations to distract from the fresco scenes. Vasari explains that Angelico was inspired to create a largeCrucifixion scene with many saints for theChapter House afterCosimo de' Medici saw the frescoes. As with the other frescoes, de' Medici's patronage did not influence Angelico's artistic expression with displays of wealth.[5]
Masaccio ventured into perspective with his creation of a realistically painted niche atSanta Maria Novella. Subsequently, Angelico demonstrated an understanding oflinear perspective, particularly in his Annunciation paintings set inside the sort of arcades thatMichelozzo andBrunelleschi created at San Marco and the square in front of it.[13]
Saint Lawrence distributing alms 1447–1450, fresco, Chapel of Nicholas V,Vatican City.[20] This painting incorporates the expensive pigments, gold leaf and elaborate design typical of Vatican commissions.
When Fra Angelico went to theVatican to decorate the chapel of Pope Nicholas, he was again confronted with the need to please the very wealthiest of clients. In consequence, walking into the small chapel is like stepping into a jewel box. The walls are decked with the brilliance of colour and gold that are found in the most lavish creations of the Gothic painterSimone Martini at the Lower Church of St Francis of Assisi, a hundred years earlier. Yet Angelico created designs that reveal his own preoccupation with humanity, humility, and piety. The figures, in their lavish gilded robes, have the sweetness and gentleness for which his works are famous. According to Vasari, "in their bearing and expression, the saints painted by Angelico come nearer to the truth than the figures done by any other artist."[21]
It is probable that much of the actual painting was done by his assistants to his design. Benozzo Gozzoli was a highly accomplished painter but took his art further towards the fully developed Renaissance style with his expressive and lifelike portraits in his masterpiece depicting theJourney of the Magi, painted in theMedici's private chapel at theirpalazzo.[22]
Through Fra Angelico's pupil Benozzo Gozzoli's careful portraiture and technical expertise in the art of fresco we see a link toDomenico Ghirlandaio, who in turn painted extensive schemes for the wealthy patrons of Florence, and through Ghirlandaio to his pupilMichelangelo and the High Renaissance.
When Michelangelo took up the Sistine Chapel commission, he was working within a space that had already been extensively decorated by other artists. Around the walls theLife of Christ andLife of Moses were depicted by a range of artists including his teacherGhirlandaio,Raphael's teacherPerugino andBotticelli. They were works of large scale and exactly the sort of lavish treatment to be expected in a Vatican commission, vying with each other in the complexity of design, number of figures, elaboration of detail and skilful use of gold leaf. Above these works stood a row of painted Popes in brilliant brocades and gold tiaras. None of these splendours have any place in the work which Michelangelo created. Michelangelo, when asked byPope Julius II to ornament the robes of the Apostles in the usual way, responded that they were very poor men.[13]
Within the cells of San Marco, Fra Angelico had demonstrated that painterly skill and the artist's personal interpretation were sufficient to create memorable works of art, without the expensive trappings of blue and gold. In the use of the unadorned fresco technique, the clear, bright pastel colours, the careful arrangement of a few significant figures and the skillful use of expression, motion and gesture, Michelangelo showed himself to be the artistic descendant of Fra Angelico. Frederick Hartt describes Fra Angelico as "prophetic of the mysticism" of painters such asRembrandt,El Greco andZurbarán.[13]
Vasari praised Fra Angelico: "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."[5]
The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Magdalen. early 1420s.Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Purchased from a private collection in November 2024.[25]
Altarpiece for chancel –Virgin withSaints Cosmas and Damian, attended by Saints Dominic, Peter, Francis, Mark, John Evangelist and Stephen. Cosmas and Damian were patrons of the Medici. The altarpiece was commissioned in 1438 by Cosimo de' Medici. It was removed and disassembled during the renovation of the convent church in the seventeenth century. Two of the ninepredella panels remain at the convent; seven are in Washington, Munich, Dublin and Paris. Unexpectedly, in 2006 the last two missing panels, Dominican saints from the side panels, turned up in the estate of a modest collector in Oxfordshire, who had bought them in California in the 1960s.[27]
Two versions of theCrucifixion with St Dominic; in the Cloister
Very largeCrucifixion with Virgin and 20 Saints; in the Chapter House
The Annunciation; at the top of the Dormitory stairs. This is probably the most reproduced of all Fra Angelico's paintings.
Virgin Enthroned with Four Saints; in the Dormitory passage
Coronation of the Virgin medallion, 1450sInThe Annunciation, the interior reproduces that of the cell in which it is located.
Each cell is decorated with a fresco which matches in size and shape the single round-headed window beside it. The frescoes are apparently for contemplative purposes. They have a pale, serene, unearthly beauty. Many of Fra Angelico's finest and most reproduced works are among them. There are, particularly in the inner row of cells, some of the less inspiring quality and of the more repetitive subject, perhaps completed by assistants.[13] Many pictures include Dominican saints as witnesses of the scene each in one of the nine traditional prayer postures depicted inDe Modo Orandi. The friar using the cell could place himself in the scene.
The Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, at theVatican, was probably painted with much assistance from Benozzo Gozzoli and Gentile da Fabriano. The entire surface of the wall and ceiling is sumptuously painted. There is much gold leaf for borders and decoration, and a great use of brilliant blue made fromlapis lazuli.
In September 2006 two works by Angelico were identified in a private collection inOxford. The owner, Jean Preston, had inherited them from her father, who had bought them for £100 in the 1960s.[28] Preston had recognised them as high-quality Florentine Renaissance, but did not realize that they were works by Angelico until they were identified in 2005 by Michael Liversidge of Bristol University.[29] The works are two of eight side panels of the San Marco Altarpiece, produced in 1439 and later separated byNapoleon's army.[citation needed] While the centre section is still held in San Marco, the other six side panels are in German and US museums. The Italian Government had hoped to purchase them but they were outbid at auction on 20 April 2007 by a private collector for £1.7M.[28] Both panels are now restored and exhibited in the San Marco Museum in Florence.[citation needed]
^Werner Cohn,Il Beato Angelico e Battista di Biagio Sanguigni. Revista d'Arte, V, (1955): 207–221.
^Stefano Orlandi,Beato Angelico; Monographia Storica della Vita e delle Opere con Un'Appendice di Nuovi Documenti Inediti. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1964.
^Williamson, Beth (2018).Fra Angelico: Heaven On Earth. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Paul Holberton Publishing. p. 41.ISBN978-1-911300-39-7.
^Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret (1999).John Paul II's Book of Saints. Our Sunday Visitor. p. 156.ISBN0-87973-934-7.
^Martyrologium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Ioannis Pauli Pp. II promulgatum, editio [typica] altera, Typis Vaticanis, A.D. MMIV (2004), p. 155ISBN88-209-7210-7
Giorgio Vasari.Lives of the Artists. first published 1568. Penguin Classics, 1965.
Donald Attwater.The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. Penguin Reference Books, 1965.
Luciano Berti.Florence, the city and its Art. Bercocci, 1979.
Werner Cohn.Il Beato Angelico e Battista di Biagio Sanguigni. Revista d'Arte, V, (1955): 207–221.
Stefano Orlandi.Beato Angelico; Monographia Storica della Vita e delle Opere con Un'Appendice di Nuovi Documenti Inediti. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1964.
Nathaniel Silver (ed.),Fra Angelico: Heaven on Earth, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 2018
Gerardo de Simone,Il Beato Angelico a Roma. Rinascita delle arti e Umanesimo cristiano nell'Urbe di Niccolò V e Leon Battista Alberti, Fondazione Carlo Marchi, Studi, vol. 34, Olschki, Firenze 2017
Gerardo de Simone, "La bottega di un frate pittore: il Beato Angelico tra Fiesole, Firenze e Roma", inRevista Diálogos Mediterrânicos, n. 8, Curitiba (Brasil) 2015, ISSN 2237-6585, pp. 48–85 –http://www.dialogosmediterranicos.com.br/index.php/RevistaDM
Gerardo de Simone, "Fra Angelico: perspectives de recherche, passées et futures", inPerspective, la revue de l'INHA. Actualités de la recherche en histoire de l'art, 1/2013, pp. 25–42
Gerardo de Simone, "Velut alter Iottus. Il Beato Angelico e i suoi 'profeti trecenteschi'", in1492. Rivista della Fondazione Piero della Francesca, 2, 2009 (2010), pp. 41–66
Gerardo de Simone, "L'Angelico di Pisa. Ricerche e ipotesi intorno al Redentore benedicente del Museo Nazionale di San Matteo", inPolittico, Edizioni Plus – Pisa University Press, 5, Pisa 2008, pp. 5–35
Gerardo de Simone, "L'ultimo Angelico. Le "Meditationes" del cardinal Torquemada e il ciclo perduto nel chiostro di S. Maria sopra Minerva", inRicerche di Storia dell'Arte, Carocci Editore, Roma 2002, pp. 41–87
Georges Didi-Huberman,Fra Angelico: Dissemblance and Figuration. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1995.ISBN0-226-14813-0Discussion of how Fra Angelico challenged Renaissance naturalism and developed a technique to portray "unfigurable" theological ideas.
Rowland, Ingrid D."Painted Sermons"New York Review of Books, February 26, 2026. Review of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco exhibit and its catalog.
Silver, Nathaniel,"Angels' delight"Apollo, January 2026, p. 87. Review of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco exhibit.
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