FRA ANGELICONationality: ItalianCirca 1400- Circa. 1455Activity: Painter
Fra Angelico was a major Italian painter of the early Renaissance who led the life of a devout friar beside being an accomplished painter.
He was called Angelico (“angelic”) and Beato (“blessed”) because of his deep piety while people found the paintings he executed were calm religious subjects.
Guido di Pietro, his real name, was born in Vicchio, Tuscany. He entered a Dominican convent in Fiesole at 18 and became a friar using the name Giovanni da Fiesole. He reportedly began his career as an illuminator of missals and other religious books before he went to paint altarpieces and other panels.
His most important early works were the Madonna of the Star painted between 1428 and 1433, now in San Marco, Florence, and Christ in Glory Surrounded by Saints and Angels now hanging at the (National Gallery in London, in which over 250 figures were numbered. Among other works of that period were two of the Coronation of the Virgin, now in San Marco and at Louvre in Paris and The Deposition and The Last Judgment (in San Marco). His extraordinary style blossomed in the Madonna of the Linen Weavers painted in 1433 ( in San Marco), which is represented with a border showing 12 music-making angels.
In 1436, when some of the Dominican friars of Fiesole moved to the convent of San Marco in Florence, which had just been rebuilt by Michelozzo, Angelico painted many frescoes for the cloister, chapter house, and entrances to the 20 cells on the upper corridors.
The most dazzling of these frescoes were The Crucifixion, Christ as a Pilgrim, and Transfiguration. His altarpiece for San Marco painted around 1439 was one of the first representations of what was called a Sacred Conversation with the Madonna flanked by angels and saints sharing a common space.
In 1445 Angelico was invited to Rome by Pope Eugenius IV to paint frescoes for the Chapel of the Sacrament in the Vatican, now destroyed. In 1447, with his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, he painted frescoes for the Orvieto cathedral. His last important works, frescoes for the chapel of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican, were Scenes from the Lives of Saints Stephen and Lawrence painted between 1447 and 1449). However, many art historians believe these were probably executed by assistants after his designs.
From 1449 to 1452 Fra Angelico was prior of his convent in Fiesole. He died in the Dominican convent in Rome on March 18, 1455. Angelico was among the painters who combined the influence of the Gothic style with the more realistic style of Renaissance masters, such as the painter Masaccio and the sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, all of whom worked in Florence. Aware of the theories of perspective formulated by Leon Battista Alberti, Angelico painted some striking works during his career and imposed himself as one of the pioneering painters of the Renaissance.
FRA ANGELICONationality: ItalianCirca 1400- Circa. 1455Activity: Painter
Fra Angelico was a major Italian painter of the early Renaissance who led the life of a devout friar beside being an accomplished painter.
He was called Angelico (“angelic”) and Beato (“blessed”) because of his deep piety while people found the paintings he executed were calm religious subjects.
Guido di Pietro, his real name, was born in Vicchio, Tuscany. He entered a Dominican convent in Fiesole at 18 and became a friar using the name Giovanni da Fiesole. He reportedly began his career as an illuminator of missals and other religious books before he went to paint altarpieces and other panels.
His most important early works were the Madonna of the Star painted between 1428 and 1433, now in San Marco, Florence, and Christ in Glory Surrounded by Saints and Angels now hanging at the (National Gallery in London, in which over 250 figures were numbered. Among other works of that period were two of the Coronation of the Virgin, now in San Marco and at Louvre in Paris and The Deposition and The Last Judgment (in San Marco). His extraordinary style blossomed in the Madonna of the Linen Weavers painted in 1433 ( in San Marco), which is represented with a border showing 12 music-making angels.
In 1436, when some of the Dominican friars of Fiesole moved to the convent of San Marco in Florence, which had just been rebuilt by Michelozzo, Angelico painted many frescoes for the cloister, chapter house, and entrances to the 20 cells on the upper corridors.
The most dazzling of these frescoes were The Crucifixion, Christ as a Pilgrim, and Transfiguration. His altarpiece for San Marco painted around 1439 was one of the first representations of what was called a Sacred Conversation with the Madonna flanked by angels and saints sharing a common space.
In 1445 Angelico was invited to Rome by Pope Eugenius IV to paint frescoes for the Chapel of the Sacrament in the Vatican, now destroyed. In 1447, with his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, he painted frescoes for the Orvieto cathedral. His last important works, frescoes for the chapel of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican, were Scenes from the Lives of Saints Stephen and Lawrence painted between 1447 and 1449). However, many art historians believe these were probably executed by assistants after his designs.
From 1449 to 1452 Fra Angelico was prior of his convent in Fiesole. He died in the Dominican convent in Rome on March 18, 1455. Angelico was among the painters who combined the influence of the Gothic style with the more realistic style of Renaissance masters, such as the painter Masaccio and the sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, all of whom worked in Florence. Aware of the theories of perspective formulated by Leon Battista Alberti, Angelico painted some striking works during his career and imposed himself as one of the pioneering painters of the Renaissance.
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