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ANGELICO, FRA (1387–1455)

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 8 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANGELICO, FRA (1387–1455) , See also:Italian painter. Il Beato Fra Giovanni Angelico da See also:Fiesole is the name given to a far-famed painter-See also:friar of the Florentine See also:state in the 15th See also:century, the representative, beyond all other men, of pietistic See also:painting. He is often, but not accurately, termed simply " Fiesole," which is merely the name of the See also:town where he first took the vows; more often Fra Angelico. If we turn his See also:compound designation into See also:English, it runs thus—" the Beatified Friar See also:John the Angelic of Fiesole." In his lifetime he was known no doubt simply as Fra Giovanni or Friar John; " The Angelic " is a laudatory See also:term which was assigned to him at an See also:early date,—we find it in use within See also:thirty years after his See also:death; and, at some See also:period which is not defined in our authorities, he was beatified by due ecclesiastical See also:process. His baptismal name was Guido, Giovanni being only his name in See also:religion. He was See also:born at Vicchio, in the Tuscan See also:province of Mugello, of unknown but seemingly well-to-do parentage, in 1387 (not 1390 as sometimes stated); in 1407 he became a novice in the See also:convent of S. Domenico at Fiesole, and in 1408 he took the vows and entered the Dominican See also:order. Whether he had previously been a painter by profession is not certain, but may be pronounced probable. The painter named Lorenzo See also:Monaco may have contributed to his See also:art-training, and the See also:influence of the Sienese school is discernible in his See also:work. 21 Matt. xviii. 1o; Acts xii. 15.

22 Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2; LXX. of Deut. xxxiii. 2. According to See also:

Vasari, the first paintings of this artist were in the Certosa of See also:Florence; none such exist there now. His earliest extant performances, in considerable number, are at See also:Cortona, whither he was sent during his novitiate, and here apparently he spent all the opening years of his monastic See also:life. His first See also:works executed in See also:fresco were probably those, now destroyed, which he painted in the convent of S. Domenico in this See also:city; as a fresco-painter, he may have worked under, or as a follower of, Gherardo Starnina. From 1418 to 1436 he was back at Fiesole; in 1436 he was transferred to the Dominican convent of S. Marco in Florence, and in 1438 undertook to paint the altarpiece for the See also:choir, followed by many other works; he may have studied about this See also:time the renowned frescoes in the Brancacci See also:chapel in the Florentine See also:church of the See also:Carmine and also the paintings of See also:Orcagna. In or about 1445 he was invited by the See also:pope to See also:Rome. The pope who reigned from 1431 to 1447 was See also:Eugenius IV., and he it was who in 1445 appointed another Dominican friar, a colleague of Angelico, to be See also:archbishop of Florence.

If the See also:

story (first told by Vasari) is true—that this See also:appointment was made at the See also:suggestion of Angelico only after the archbishopric had been offered to himself, and by him declined on the ground of his inaptitude for so elevated and responsible a station—Eugenius, and not (as stated by Vasari) his successor See also:Nicholas V., must have been the pope who sent the invitation and made the offer to Fra Giovanni, for Nicholas only succeeded in 1447. The whole statement lacks authentication, though in itself credible enough. Certain it is that Angelico was staying in Rome in the first See also:half of 1447; and he painted in the Vatican the Cappella del See also:Sacramento, which was afterwards demolished by See also:Paul III. In See also:June 1447 he proceeded to See also:Orvieto, to paint in the Cappella Nuova of the See also:cathedral, with the co-operation of his See also:pupil Benozzo See also:Gozzoli. He afterwards returned to Rome to paint the chapel of Nicholas V. In this See also:capital he died in 1455, and he lies buried in the church of the See also:Minerva. According to all the accounts which have reached us, few men on whom the distinction of See also:beatification has been conferred could have deserved it more nobly than Fra Giovanni. He led a See also:holy and self-denying life, shunning all See also:advancement, and was a See also:brother to the poor; no See also:man ever saw him angered. He painted with unceasing See also:diligence, treating none but sacred subjects; he never retouched or altered his work, probably with a religious feeling that such as divine See also:providence allowed the thing to come, such it should remain He was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of See also:Christ should be with Christ. It is averred that he never handled a See also:brush without fervent See also:prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion. The Last See also:Judgment and the See also:Annunciation were two of the subjects he most frequently treated. Bearing in mind the details already given as to the See also:dates of Fra Giovanni's sojournings in various localities, the reader will be able to trace approximately the sequence of the works which we now proceed to name as among his most important productions.

In Florence, in the convent of S. Marco (now converted into a See also:

national museum), a See also:series of frescoes, beginning towards 1443; in the first See also:cloister is the Crucifixion with St See also:Dominic kneeling; and the same treatment recurs on a See also:wall near the See also:dormitory; in the chapterhouse is a third Crucifixion, with the Virgin swooning, a See also:composition of twenty life-sized figures—the red background, which has a See also:strange and harsh effect, is the misdoing of some restorer; an " Annunciation," the figures of about three-fourths of life-See also:size, in a dormitory; in the adjoining passage, the " Virgin enthroned," with four See also:saints; on the wall of a See also:cell, the " See also:Coronation of the Virgin," with Saints Paul, See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas, See also:Benedict, Dominic, See also:Francis and See also:Peter See also:Martyr; two See also:Dominicans welcoming Jesus, habited as a See also:pilgrim; an " See also:Adoration of the Magi "; the " Marys at the See also:Sepulchre." All these works are later than the altarpiece which Angelico painted (as before mentioned) for the choir connected with this convent, and which is now in the See also:academy of Florence; it represents the Virgin with Saints See also:Cosmas and Damian (the patrons of the See also:Medici See also:family), Dominic, Peter, Francis, See also:Mark, John Evangelist and See also:Stephen; the See also:pediment illustrated the lives of Cosmas and Damian, but it has See also:long beensevered from the See also:main subject. In the Uffizi See also:gallery, an altarpiece, the Virgin (life-sized) enthroned, with the See also:Infant and twelve angels. In S. Domenico, Fiesole, a few frescoes, less See also:fine than those in S. Marco; also an altarpiece in See also:tempera of the Virgin and See also:Child between Saints Peter, Thomas Aquinas, Dominic and Peter Martyr, now much destroyed. The subject which originally formed the See also:predella of this picture has, since 186o, been in the National Gallery, See also:London, and worthily represents there the See also:hand of the saintly painter. The subject is a See also:Glory, Christ with the banner of the Resurrection, and a multitude of saints, including, at the extremities, the saints or beati of the Dominican order; here are no fewer than 266 figures or portions of figures, many of them having names inscribed. This predella was highly lauded by Vasari; still more highly another picture which used to See also:form an altarpiece in Fiesole, and which now obtains See also:world-wide celebrity in the Louvre—the " Coronation of the Virgin," with eight predella subjects of the miracles of St. Dominic. For the church of See also:Santa Trinita, Florence, Angelico executed a " Deposition from the See also:Cross," and for the church of the Angeli, a " Last Judgment," both now in the Florentine academy; for S. Maria Novella, a " Coronation of the Virgin," with a predella in three sections, now in the Uffizi,—this again is one of his masterpieces.

In Orvieto cathedral he painted three triangular divisions of the See also:

ceiling, portraying respectively Christ in a glory of angels, sixteen saints and prophets, and the virgin and apostles: all these are now much repainted and damaged. In Rome, in the Chapel of Nicholas V., the acts of Saints Stephen and See also:Lawrence; also various figures of saints, and on the ceiling the four evangelists. These works of the painter's advanced See also:age, which have suffered somewhat from restorations, show vigour See also:superior to that of his youth, along with a more adequate treatment of the architectural perspectives. Naturally, there are a number of works currently attributed to Angelico, but not really his; for instance, a " St Thomas with the Madonna's See also:girdle," in the Lateran museum, and a " Virgin enthroned," in the church of S. See also:Girolamo, Fiesole. It has often been said that he commenced and frequently practised as an illuminator; this is dubious and a presumption arises that illuminations executed by Giovanni's brother, Benedetto, also a Dominican, who died in 1448, have been ascribed to the more famous artist. Benedetto may perhaps have assisted Giovanni in the frescoes at S. Marco, but nothing of the See also:kind is distinctly traceable. A See also:folio series of engravings from these paintings was published in Florence, in 1852. Along with Gozzoli already mentioned, Zanobi See also:Strozzi and See also:Gentile da See also:Fabriano are named as pupils of the Beato. We have spoken of Angelico's art as " pietistic "; this is in fact its predominant See also:character. His visages have an See also:air of rapt suavity, devotional fervency and beaming See also:esoteric consciousness, which is intensely attractive to some minds and realizes beyond rivalry a particular ideal—that of ecclesiastical saintliness and detachment from See also:secular See also:fret and turmoil.

It should not be denied that he did not always See also:

escape the pitfalls of such a method of treatment, the faces becoming sleek and See also:prim, with a smirk of sexless religiosity which hardly eludes the artificial or even the hypocritical; on other minds, therefore, and these some of the most masculine and resolute, he produces little genuine impression. After allowing for this, Angelico should nevertheless be accepted beyond cavil as an exalted typical painter according to his own range of conceptions, consonant with his monastic calling, unsullied purity of life and exceeding devoutness. Exquisite as he is in his See also:special mode of See also:execution, he undoubtedly falls far See also:short, not only of his See also:great naturalist contemporaries such as See also:Masaccio and Lippo See also:Lippi, but even of so distant a precursor as See also:Giotto, in all that pertains to bold or life-like invention of a subject or the realization of See also:ordinary appearances, expressions and actions--the facts of nature, as distinguished from the aspirations or contemplations of the spirit. Technically speaking, he had much finish and See also:harmony of composition and See also:colour, without corresponding mastery of See also:light and shade, and his knowledge of the human See also:frame was restricted. The brilliancy and See also:fair light See also:scale of his tints is constantly remarkable, combined with a See also:free use of See also:gilding; this conduces materially to that See also:celestial character which so pre-eminently distinguishes his pictured visions of the divine persons, the See also:hierarchy of See also:heaven and the glory of the redeemed. Books regarding Fra Angelico are numerous. We may mention those by S. Beissel, 1895; V. M. See also:Crawford, 1900; R. L. See also:Douglas, 1900; I.

B. Supino, 1901; D. Tumiati, 1897; G. See also:

Williamson, 1901. (W. M.

End of Article: ANGELICO, FRA (1387–1455)

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