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Fra Angelico was an Italian
painter of the early Renaissance who combined the life of a devout
friar with that of an accomplished painter. He was called Angelico
(Italian for “angelic”) and Beato (Italian for “blessed”) because
the paintings he did were of calm, religious subjects and because of
his extraordinary personal piety.
Originally named Guido di
Pietro, Angelico was born in Vicchio, Tuscany. He entered a
Dominican convent in Fiesole in 1418 and became a friar using the
name Giovanni da Fiesole. Although his teacher is unknown, he
apparently began his career as an illuminator of missals and other
religious books. He began to paint altarpieces and other panels;
among his important early works are the Madonna of the Star
(1428?-1433, San Marco, Florence) and Christ in Glory Surrounded by
Saints and Angels (National Gallery, London), which depicts more
than 250 distinct figures. Among other works of that period are two
of the Coronation of the Virgin (San Marco and Louvre, Paris) and
The Deposition and The Last Judgment (San Marco). His mature style
is first seen in the Madonna of the Linen Weavers (1433, San Marco),
which features a border with 12 music-making angels.
From 1449 to 1452 Angelico
was prior of his convent in Fiesole. He died in the Dominican
convent in Rome on March 18, 1455.
Angelico combined the
influence of the elegantly decorative Gothic style of Gentile da
Fabriano with the more realistic style of such Renaissance masters
as the painter Masaccio and the sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti,
all of whom worked in Florence. Angelico was also aware of the
theories of perspective proposed by Leon Battista Alberti.
Angelico’s representation of devout facial expressions and his use
of colour to heighten emotion are particularly effective. His skill
in creating monumental figures, representing motion, and suggesting
deep space through the use of linear perspective, especially in the
Roman frescoes, mark him as one of the foremost painters of the
Renaissance. |
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