DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0063
FLORENTINE
37
without the tears running down his cheeks. And the saints that he
painted are more like saints in face and expression than those of any
other master. And since it seemed that saints and angels of beauty
so divine could only be painted by the hand of an angel, he was always
called Fra Angelico.”
Fra Angelico was born in 1387 in a little hamlet called Vicchio, in
the province of Mugello in Tuscany, about twenty miles from Florence.
His surname is unknown—if indeed he had one—for his father, who
lived in a cottage belonging to the lord of the Castle of Vicchio, was
simply known as Pietro of Mugello. Guido was the name his father
gave him but he changed this to Fra Giovanni, when he became a monk
of the Dominican Order at Fiesole in 1406. It is supposed that he had
been thoroughly trained as a painter, because he immediately began
to paint frescoes for the monks; and it is also supposed that “ Stamina ”
was his master. Owing to religious troubles, the Dominican monks
were driven from Fiesole to Foligno and thence to Cortona, where the
earliest extant works—movable altar-pieces—of Fra Angelico are pre-
served. In 1418 the Dominicans returned to Fiesole, where Fra Angel-
ico, or rather Fra Giovanni, lived for the next few years and where he
painted many of his most famous altar-pieces.
In 1434 Cosimo de’ Medici was recalled from banishment and he
immediately had the Convent of San Marco rebuilt for the Dominican
monks of Fiesole. When the new building was ready in 1436 he com-
missioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls. In a cell which Cosimo
de ’ Medici had reserved for his own personal retreat from worldly cares,
he had Fra Angelico paint a large Adoration of the Magi, for he desired
to have “this example of Eastern kings laying down their crowns at
the manger of Bethlehem always before his eyes as a reminder for
his own guidance as a ruler.”
While Fra Angelico was busy on a series of small panels depicting
the Life of Christ for a credenza in which the altar-plate was kept and
which had been ordered by Piero de’ Medici (Cosimo’s son), Pope
Eugenius IV called him to Rome, to paint a chapel in St. Peter’s.
Three of the remaining panels of the credenza were painted by Alesso
Baldovinetti.
37
without the tears running down his cheeks. And the saints that he
painted are more like saints in face and expression than those of any
other master. And since it seemed that saints and angels of beauty
so divine could only be painted by the hand of an angel, he was always
called Fra Angelico.”
Fra Angelico was born in 1387 in a little hamlet called Vicchio, in
the province of Mugello in Tuscany, about twenty miles from Florence.
His surname is unknown—if indeed he had one—for his father, who
lived in a cottage belonging to the lord of the Castle of Vicchio, was
simply known as Pietro of Mugello. Guido was the name his father
gave him but he changed this to Fra Giovanni, when he became a monk
of the Dominican Order at Fiesole in 1406. It is supposed that he had
been thoroughly trained as a painter, because he immediately began
to paint frescoes for the monks; and it is also supposed that “ Stamina ”
was his master. Owing to religious troubles, the Dominican monks
were driven from Fiesole to Foligno and thence to Cortona, where the
earliest extant works—movable altar-pieces—of Fra Angelico are pre-
served. In 1418 the Dominicans returned to Fiesole, where Fra Angel-
ico, or rather Fra Giovanni, lived for the next few years and where he
painted many of his most famous altar-pieces.
In 1434 Cosimo de’ Medici was recalled from banishment and he
immediately had the Convent of San Marco rebuilt for the Dominican
monks of Fiesole. When the new building was ready in 1436 he com-
missioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls. In a cell which Cosimo
de ’ Medici had reserved for his own personal retreat from worldly cares,
he had Fra Angelico paint a large Adoration of the Magi, for he desired
to have “this example of Eastern kings laying down their crowns at
the manger of Bethlehem always before his eyes as a reminder for
his own guidance as a ruler.”
While Fra Angelico was busy on a series of small panels depicting
the Life of Christ for a credenza in which the altar-plate was kept and
which had been ordered by Piero de’ Medici (Cosimo’s son), Pope
Eugenius IV called him to Rome, to paint a chapel in St. Peter’s.
Three of the remaining panels of the credenza were painted by Alesso
Baldovinetti.