DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0058
32
OLD WORLD MASTERS
“Masolino,” Vasari wrote, “was a man of rare intelligence and his
paintings are executed with great love and diligence. I have often
examined his works and find his style to be essentially different from
the styles of those before him. He gave majesty to his figures and
introduced finely designed folds in his draperies. He began to under-
stand light and shade and to give his forms relief and succeeded in
some very difficult foreshortenings. He also gave greater sweetness
of expression to his women heads and gayer costumes to his young
men, and his perspective is tolerably correct. But, above all, he ex-
celled in fresco-painting. This he did so well, and with such delicately
blending colors, that his flesh tones have the utmost softness im-
aginable; and if he could have drawn more perfectly, he would de-
serve to be numbered among the best artists.”
GABRIEL, THE ANNOUNCING ANGEL.
Fra Angelico Collection of
{1387-1455). Mr. Edsel B. Ford.
This panel and the one succeeding it, The Virgin Receiving the Divine
Message, originally formed a diptych. In treatment and expression
they resemble the figures in Fra Angelico’s Annunciation in the Ora-
torio del Gesu at Cortona.
The Archangel, according to Dante’s expression, has brought the
long-desired tidings and he stands on a background of gold with wings
still extended like those of a dove, just alighted from the heavens,
looking into Mary’s face very earnestly, and pointing upward to em-
phasize to her that he comes from the spheres above. This Gabriel
is one of the most beautiful of Fra Angelico’s most beautiful angels,
his wings being of an extraordinary elegance of contour and a peculiar
loveliness of color—rose, violet, green, and yellow, scintillating in
iridescent play. His crimson robe, shading into high lights and fainter
tones, is richly, although very simply, decorated with bands of gold
embroidery in the Byzantine style. The hair is blonde and beauti-
fully curled and the head stands out in fine relief from the golden
glory. Notice the beauty of the ear and the distinguished line of the
OLD WORLD MASTERS
“Masolino,” Vasari wrote, “was a man of rare intelligence and his
paintings are executed with great love and diligence. I have often
examined his works and find his style to be essentially different from
the styles of those before him. He gave majesty to his figures and
introduced finely designed folds in his draperies. He began to under-
stand light and shade and to give his forms relief and succeeded in
some very difficult foreshortenings. He also gave greater sweetness
of expression to his women heads and gayer costumes to his young
men, and his perspective is tolerably correct. But, above all, he ex-
celled in fresco-painting. This he did so well, and with such delicately
blending colors, that his flesh tones have the utmost softness im-
aginable; and if he could have drawn more perfectly, he would de-
serve to be numbered among the best artists.”
GABRIEL, THE ANNOUNCING ANGEL.
Fra Angelico Collection of
{1387-1455). Mr. Edsel B. Ford.
This panel and the one succeeding it, The Virgin Receiving the Divine
Message, originally formed a diptych. In treatment and expression
they resemble the figures in Fra Angelico’s Annunciation in the Ora-
torio del Gesu at Cortona.
The Archangel, according to Dante’s expression, has brought the
long-desired tidings and he stands on a background of gold with wings
still extended like those of a dove, just alighted from the heavens,
looking into Mary’s face very earnestly, and pointing upward to em-
phasize to her that he comes from the spheres above. This Gabriel
is one of the most beautiful of Fra Angelico’s most beautiful angels,
his wings being of an extraordinary elegance of contour and a peculiar
loveliness of color—rose, violet, green, and yellow, scintillating in
iridescent play. His crimson robe, shading into high lights and fainter
tones, is richly, although very simply, decorated with bands of gold
embroidery in the Byzantine style. The hair is blonde and beauti-
fully curled and the head stands out in fine relief from the golden
glory. Notice the beauty of the ear and the distinguished line of the