See also
COLLECTION:
Donatello
Donatello
born c. 1386, Florence
died Dec. 13, 1466, Florence
master of sculpture in both marble andbronze, one of the greatest of
all Italian Renaissance artists.
A good deal is known about Donatello's life and career, but little
is known about his character and personality, and what is known is
not wholly reliable. He never married and he seems to have been a
man of simple tastes. Patrons often found himhard to deal with in a
day when artists' working conditions were regulated by guild rules.
Donatello seemingly demanded a measure of artistic freedom. Although
he knew a number of Humanists well, the artist was not a cultured
intellectual. His Humanist friends attest that he was a connoisseur
of ancient art. The inscriptions and signatures on his works are
among the earliest examples of the revival of classical Roman
lettering.He had a more detailed and wide-ranging knowledge of
ancient sculpture than any other artist of his day. His work was
inspired by ancient visual examples, which he often daringly
transformed. Though he was traditionally viewed asessentially a
realist, later research indicates he was much more.
Early career
Donatello (diminutive of Donnato) was the son of Niccolò diBetto
Bardi, a Florentine wool carder. It is not known how he began his
career, but it seems likely that he learned stone carving from one
of the sculptors working for the cathedral ofFlorence about 1400.
Some time between 1404 and 1407 he became a member of the workshop
of Lorenzo Ghiberti, a sculptor in bronze who in 1402 had won the
competition for the doors of the Florentine baptistery. Donatello's
earliest work of which there is certain knowledge, a marble statue
of David, shows an artistic debt to Ghiberti, who was then the
leading Florentine exponent of International Gothic, a style of
graceful, softly curved lines strongly influenced by northern
European art. The “David,” originally intended for the cathedral,
was moved in 1416 to the Palazzo Vecchio, the city hall, where it
long stood as a civic–patriotic symbol, although from the 16th
century on it was eclipsed by the gigantic “David” of Michelangelo,
which served the same purpose. Other of Donatello's early works,
still partly Gothicin style, are the impressive seated marble figure
of St. John the Evangelist for the cathedral facade and a wooden
crucifix in the church of Sta. Croce. The latter, according to an
unproved anecdote, was made in friendly competition with
Brunelleschi, a sculptor and an architect.
The full power of Donatello first appeared in two marble statues,
“St. Mark” and “St. George” (both completed c. 1415), for niches on
the exterior of Or San Michele, the church of Florentine guilds
(“St. George” has been replaced by a copy; the original is now in
the Bargello). Here, for the first time since classical antiquity
and in striking contrast to medieval art, the human body is rendered
as a self-activating, functional organism, and the human personality
is shown with a confidence in its own worth. The same qualities came
increasingly to the fore in a series of five prophet statues that
Donatello did beginning in 1416 for the niches of the campanile, the
bell tower of the cathedral (all these figures, together with others
by lesser masters, were later removed to the Museo dell'Opera del
Duomo). The statues were of a beardless and a bearded prophet, as
well as a group of Abraham and Isaac (1416–21) for the eastern
niches; the so-called “Zuccone” (“pumpkin,” because of its bald
head); and the so-called “Jeremiah” (actually Habakkuk) for the
western niches. The “Zuccone” isdeservedly famous as the finest of
the campanile statues and one of the artist's masterpieces. In both
the “Zuccone” and the “Jeremiah” (1427–35), their whole appearance,
especially highly individual features inspired by ancient Roman
portrait busts, suggests classical orators of singular expressive
force. The statues are so different from the traditional images of
Old Testament prophets that by the end of the 15th century they
could be mistaken for portrait statues.
A pictorial tendency in sculpture had begun with Ghiberti's
narrative relief panels for the north door of the baptistery, in
which he extended the apparent depth of the scene by placing boldly
rounded foreground figures against more delicately modeled settings
of landscape and architecture. Donatello invented his own bold new
mode of relief in his marble panel “St. George Killing the Dragon”
(1416–17, base of the St. George niche at Or San Michele). Known as
schiacciato (“flattened out”), the technique involved extremely
shallow carving throughout, which created a far more striking effect
of atmospheric space than before. The sculptor no longer modeled his
shapes in the usual way but rather seemed to “paint” them with his
chisel. A blind man could “read” a Ghiberti relief with his
fingertips; a schiacciato panel depends on visual rather than
tactile perceptions and thus must be seen.
Donatello continued to explore the possibilities of the new
technique in his marble reliefs of the 1420s and early 1430s. The
most highly developed of these are “The Ascension, with Christ
Giving the Keys to St. Peter,” which is so delicately carved that
its full beauty can be seen only in a strongly raking light; and the
“Feast of Herod” (1433–35), with its perspective background. The
large stucco roundels with scenes from the life of St. John the
Evangelist (about 1434–37), below the dome of the old sacristy of
San Lorenzo, Florence, show the same technique but with colour added
forbetter legibility at a distance.
Meanwhile, Donatello had also become a major sculptor in bronze. His
earliest such work was the more than life-size statue of St. Louis
of Toulouse (c. 1423) for a niche at Or San Michele (replaced half a
century later by Verrocchio's bronzegroup of Christ and the doubting
Thomas). Toward 1460 the “St. Louis” was transferred to Santa Croce
and is now in the museum attached to the church. Early scholars had
an unfavourable opinion of “St. Louis,” but later opinion held it to
be an achievement of the first rank, both technically and
artistically. The garments completely hide the body of the figure,
but Donatello successfully conveyed the impression of harmonious
organic structure beneath the drapery. Donatello had been
commissioned to do not only the statue but the niche and its
framework. The niche is the earliest to display Filippo
Brunelleschi's new Renaissance architectural style without residual
Gothic forms. Donatellocould hardly have designed it alone;
Michelozzo, a sculptor and architect with whom he entered into a
limited partnership a year or two later, may have assisted him. In
thepartnership, Donatello contributed only the sculptural centre for
the fine bronze effigy on the tomb of the schismatic pope John XXIII
in the baptistery; the relief of the “Assumption of the Virgin” on
the Brancacci tomb in Sant'Angelo a Nilo, Naples; and the balustrade
reliefs of dancing angels on the outdoor pulpit of Prato Cathedral
(1433–38). Michelozzo was responsible for the architectural
framework and the decorative sculpture. The architecture of these
partnership projects resembles that of Brunelleschi and differs
sharply from that of comparable works done by Donatello alone in the
1430s. All of his work done alone shows an unorthodox ornamental
vocabulary drawn from both classical and medieval sources and an un-Brunelleschian
tendency to blur the distinction between the architectural and the
sculptural elements. Both the Annunciation tabernacle in Santa Croce
and the “Cantoria” (the singer's pulpit) in the Duomo (now in the
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo) show a vastly increased repertory of
forms derived from ancient art, the harvest of Donatello's long stay
in Rome (1430–33). His departure from the standards of Brunelleschi
produced an estrangement between the two old friends that was never
repaired. Brunelleschi even composed epigrams against Donatello.
During his partnership with Michelozzo, Donatello carried out
independent commissions of pure sculpture, including several works
of bronze for the baptismal font of San Giovanni in Siena. The
earliest and most important of these was the “Feast of Herod”
(1423–27), an intensely dramatic relief with an architectural
background that first displayed Donatello's command of scientific
linear perspective, which Brunelleschi had invented only a few years
earlier. To the Siena font Donatello also contributed two statuettes
of Virtues, austerely beautiful figures whose style points toward
the Virgin and angel of the Santa Croce Annunciation,and three nude
putti, or child angels (one of which was stolenand is now in the
Berlin museum). These putti, evidently influenced by Etruscan bronze
figurines, prepared the way for the bronze David, the first
large-scale, free-standing nude statue of the Renaissance.
Well-proportioned and superbly poised, it was conceived
independently of any architectural setting. Its harmonious calm
makes it the most classical of Donatello's works. The statue was
undoubtedly done for a private patron, but his identity is in doubt.
Its recorded history begins with the wedding of Lorenzo the
Magnificent in 1469, when it occupied the centre of the courtyard of
the Medici palace in Florence. After the expulsion of the Medici in
1496, the statue was placed in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Whether the “David” was commissioned by the Medici or not, Donatello
worked for them (1433–43), producing sculptural decoration for the
old sacristy in San Lorenzo, the Medici church. Works there included
10 large reliefs in coloured stucco and two sets of small bronze
doors, which showed paired saints and apostles disputing with each
other in vivid and even violent fashion.
Paduan period.
In 1443, when Donatello was about to start work on two much more
ambitious pairs of bronze doors for the sacristies of the cathedral,
he was lured toPadua by a commission for a bronze equestrian statue
of a famous Venetian condottiere, Erasmo da Narmi, popularly called
Gattamelata (“The Honeyed Cat”), who had died shortly before. Such a
project was unprecedented—indeed, scandalous—for since the days of
the Roman Empire bronze equestrian monuments had been the sole
prerogativeof rulers. The execution of the monument was plagued by
delays. Donatello did most of the work between 1447 and 1450, yet
the statue was not placed on its pedestal until 1453. It portrays
Gattamelata in pseudo-classical armour calmly astride his mount, the
baton of command in his raised right hand. The head is an
idealizedportrait with intellectual power and Roman nobility. This
statue was the ancestor of all the equestrian monuments erected
since. Its fame, enhanced by the controversy, spreadfar and wide.
Even before it was on public view, the king of Naples wanted
Donatello to do the same kind of equestrian statue for him.
In the early 1450s, Donatello undertook some important works for the
Paduan Church of San Antonio: a splendidly expressive bronze
crucifix and a new high altar, the most ambitious of its kind,
unequaled in 15th-century Europe. Its richly decorated architectural
framework of marble and limestone contains seven life-size bronze
statues, 21 bronzereliefs of various sizes, and a large limestone
relief, “Entombment of Christ.” The housing was destroyed a century
later, and the present arrangement, dating from 1895, is wrong both
aesthetically and historically. The majestic Madonna, with an
austere frontal pose seemingly a conscious reference to an earlier
venerated image, and the delicate, sensitive St. Francis are
particularly noteworthy. The finest of the reliefs are the four
miracles of St. Anthony, wonderfully rhythmic compositions of great
narrative power. Donatello's mastery in handling large numbers of
figures (one relief has more than 100) anticipates the compositional
principles of the High Renaissance.
Donatello was apparently inactive during the last three years at
Padua, the work for the San Antonio altar unpaid for and the
Gattamelata monument not placed until 1453. He had dismissed the
large force of sculptors and stone masons used on these projects.
Offers of other commissions reachedhim from Mantua, Modena, Ferrara,
and even perhaps from Naples, but nothing came of them. Clearly,
Donatello was passing through a crisis that prevented him from
working. Hewas later quoted as saying that he almost died “among
those frogs in Padua.” In 1456 the Florentine physician Giovanni
Chellini noted in his account book that he had successfully treated
the master for a protracted illness. Donatello completed only two
works between 1450 and 1455: the wooden statue “St. John the
Baptist” in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, shortly before
his return to Florence; and an even more extraordinary figure of
Mary Magdalen in the Florentine baptistery. Both works show new
insight into psychological reality; Donatello's formerly powerful
bodies have become withered and spidery, overwhelmed, as it were, by
emotional tensions within. Whenthe “Magdalen” was damaged in the
1966 flood at Florence, restoration work revealed the original
painted surface, including realistic flesh tones and golden
highlights throughout the saint's hair.
Late Florentine period.
During Donatello's absence, a new generation of sculptors who
excelled in the sensuous treatment of marble surfaces had arisen in
Florence. Thus Donatello's wooden figures must have been a shock.
With the change in Florentine taste, all of Donatello's important
commissions came from outside Florence. They included the dramatic
bronze group “Judith and Holofernes” (later acquired by the Medici
and now standing before the Palazzo Vecchio) and a bronze statue of
St. John the Baptist for Siena Cathedral, for which he also
undertook in the late 1450s a pair of bronze doors. This ambitious
project, which might have rivaled Ghiberti's doors for the
Florentine baptistery, was abandoned about 1460 for unknown reasons
(most likely technical or financial). Only two reliefs for them were
executed; one of them is probably the “Lamentation” panel now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The last years of Donatello's life were spent designing twin bronze
pulpits for San Lorenzo, and, thus, again in the serviceof his old
patrons the Medici, he died. Covered with reliefs showing the
passion of Christ, the pulpits are works of tremendous spiritual
depth and complexity, even though some parts were left unfinished
and had to be completed by lesser artists.
H.W. Janson
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Giorgio Vasari (1511-74)
Life of
Fra Angelico
Of the Order of Friars
Preachers, painter, c.1400 - 1455
The Triumph of St Dominic, manuscript,
Museo San Marco
"In Fra Angelico's
convent of San Marco at Florence there are several choir books
with breathtaking illuminations from his hand, like some others
in San Domenico at Fiesole on which he worked with incredible
diligence. (It is true that he was helped by an elder brother
who was himself an illuminator and an experienced painter.)"
I-199
Crucifixion and Saints, San Marco,
Florence
"Over some lunettes in the first cloister [of San Marco] he painted a number of
very fine figures in fresco and a crucifix with St Dominic at the foot, which is
very highly regarded."
The Annunciation, San Marco
"and as well as many other things in the friars' cells, and on the surface of
the walls in the dormitory, he painted an indescribably beautiful scene from the
New Testament." I-201
Madonna with the Child,
Saints and Crucifixion, San Marco
"Even more lovely, however, is the wonderful altarpiece he did for the high
altar with a Madonna whose simplicity inspires devotion in the onlooker, as do
the saints who surround her." I-201
The Martyrdom of SS Cosmas and Damien,
San Marco
"Moreover the predella, containing scenes from the martyrdom of Saints Cosmas
and Damien and others, is so beautiful that one cannot imagine ever seeing
anything executed with more diligence or containing little figures as delicate
or as skilfully realised." I-201
San Domenico altarpiece
"He also painted the altarpiece for the high altar of San Domenico at Fiesole,
which has suffered from being retouched by other artists, perhaps because it was
deteriorating." I-201
Christ Glorified in the Court of
Heaven
"The predella and the ciborium of the Blessed Sacrament, however, are in a
better state of preservation, and the host of little figures that can be seen
there, in a Celestial Glory, are so exquisite that they really seem to be in
Paradise and one could stand gazing at them for ever." I-201
The Annunciation, now in the Prado
"In one of the chapels of the same church there is a panel painting by Fra
Angelico of the Annunciation, showing Our Lady and the angel Gabriel in profile,
their features being so well executed, so delicate and devout, that they would
seem to have been made in heaven rather than in this world." I-201
"In the landscape one can see Adam and Eve, because of whom the
Redeemer was born from the Virgin." I-201
Coronation of the Virgin
"Of all the paintings he did, the one in which Fra Angelico surpassed himself
was a panel picture found in San Domenico on the left hand as one enters the
church. This shows a Coronation of Our Lady by Jesus Christ, with a choir of
angels and a multitude of male and female saints with such variety in their
attitudes and expressions that in looking at them one is overwhelmed with
pleasure and delight." I-201
"There are, in addition, some inspired stories of Our Lady and St Dominic in the
predella; and I for my part can truthfully say that whenever I see this painting
it seems to be for the first time, and I can never have my fill of it." I-202
The Deposition, Santa Trinita
altarpiece
"In the sacristy of Santa Trinita there is a panel picture, showing the
Deposition, which he painted with such diligence that it ranks with the best
work he ever did." I-202
Annuciation, Zanobi Strozzi
"Then in San Francesco, outside the San Miniato gate, there is an Annunciation
by his hand;" I-202
Christ the Judge
Frescoes, Orvieto
"At Orvieto, on a section of the vaulting in the Lady Chapel in the cathedral,
he started to paint some prophets which were later finished by Luca Signorelli."
I-203
The Last Judgement
"For Santa Maria degli Angeli he painted a picture of the Inferno and Paradise
containing a number of small figures which are brilliantly interpreted, for the
blessed are shown as beautiful and exultant in the joy of heaven and the damned
as ready for the pains of hell, bearing the mark of their sins and unworthiness
on their faces and depicted in various doleful attitudes:" I-203
"...the blessed are seen entering the gates of Paradise in a
celestial dance, while the damned are being dragged by demons
into the everlasting torments of hell." I-203
Virgin with St Peter Martyr
and saints
"For the nuns of St Peter Martyr he painted a panel picture showing Our Lady, St
John the Baptist, St Dominic, St Thomas and St Peter Martyr, and a number of
small figures." I-203
St Lawrence receives the treasures of
the Church, Cappella Niccolina,
Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican
"These works spread Fra Angelico's fame through all Italy, and he was sent for
by Pope Nicholas V, for whom he decorated the private chapel of the Vatican,
where the pope hears Mass, with a Deposition and some very fine scenes from the
life of St Lawrence, as well as illuminating some extremely beautiful books."
I-203 |
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Devotion and History
To a certain extent, the Italian phenomenon osserrvanza was
linked to the Devotio Moderna. Observance led the principal
monastic orders to revive their original rules during the course of
the 15th century in order to establish a more positive relevance to
everyday life. Sacred art underwent a renewal in its didactic and
devotional purposes. The concepts of spatial and compositional
construction had to be in keeping with the new expectations of art -
of its imagery and what was communicated, which were increasingly
shaped by a growing need for self-identification. This change in
style and its subsequent development in Dominican circles can be
seen in the frescos painted by
Fra Angelico in the cells of the
monastery of San Marco in Florence, and in Leonardo's The Last
Supper (c.1495) in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in
Milan. The cult of the Immaculate Conception, popular among the
Franciscans, led to the mysterious iconography of The Virgin of
the Rocks (1508), painted by Leonardo for the Milanese
Foundation of San Francesco Grande. Many convent churches in the Po
Valley and the Alps acquired very simple and didactic Passion
cycles, which were often based on Nordic engravings, particularly
those of
Albrecht
Durer, which also dealt with the same themes. The
Augustinian monks, too. were encouraging figurative and
architectonic art of the first order, from Santo Spirito in Florence
to the Incoronata in Milan, and Santa Maria delle Grazie at
Gravcdona. Historical events had an impact on art, too. The ending
of the pope's exile in Avignon and the return of the papal seat to
Rome came about through a complex series of councils. The first ones
were held in Constance (1414-18) and Basel (1431-37), followed by
meetings in Ferrara and Florence (1437-39), where doctrinal and
political problems were discussed, such as the nationalistic demands
of Bohemia, the Jewish question in Spain, and the great effort to
reunite the Eastern churches around St Peter's See. From these
debates arose the many Eucharistic themes tackled by artists all
over Europe. In Ghent in 1432, the Adoration of the Lamb for
St Bavo was completed by
Jan van Eyck (his brother Hubert died
before finishing it); in Siena,
Sassetta
completed the polyptych
(1423-24) for the Wool Guild; and, in Belgium, The Last Supper
(1468) by
Dieric Bouts was created as part of his major work, the Louvain altarpiece. which depicted the Sacraments of St Peter.
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See also
COLLECTION:
Fra Angelico
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FRA ANGELICO' S FRESCOS IN SAN MARCO, FLORENCE
The frescos painted in the cells of the monastery of San Marco by
Giovanni da Fiesole (1387-1455), better known as
Fra Angelico, are
evidence of the close rapport between the new pictorial ideas of the
15th century and the contemporary osservante ("observance")
reforms of the most important religious orders. In fact, the
osservanza required the renewal of the original Dominican Rule
and a grounding in contemporary affairs through preaching. This
phenomenon was linked to the spirituality of the Flemish Devotio
Moderna, which centred around a symbolic union with the life of
Christ.
Fra Angelico and his fellow monks chose to portray events
from the Passion, often accompanied by the figure of a Dominican in
meditation. These simple, but vivid, representations made use of the
recent advances in perspective and the depiction of space; every
detail is drawn with a harmonious sense of geometry and proportion.
The effect of colour on light, central to the Dominican aesthetic,
gave colour the symbolic and natural values of immediate perception.
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Fra Angelico
(Enciclopaedia
Britannica)
("Brother"),original name
GUIDO DI PIETRO, also called
GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE, Italian painter, one of the
greatest 15th-century painters, whose works, within the
framework of the early Renaissance Florentine style,
embody a serene religious attitude and reflect a strong
classical influence. Most of his early work consists of
murals that he painted for the Monastery of San Marco in
Florence while he was in residence there. About 1450,
near the end of his life, he produced a cycle of 35
paintings for the doors of a silver chest in the
sanctuary of the Church of Santissima Annunziata, also
in Florence.
San
Domenico
period.
Baptized Guido di Pietro, he gained a reputation as a
painter under this name by 1417. In that year he became
associated with a miniaturist of the late Gothic
tradition, Battista Sanguigni, who was later his
assistant.
Sometime between the years 1420 and 1422, he became a
Dominican monk and resided in the Monastery of San
Domenico at Fiesole, there taking the name of Fra
Giovanni da Fiesole. At Fiesole, he was probably
influenced by the teachings of Giovanni Dominici, the
militant leader of the reformed Dominicans; the writings
of Dominici defended traditional spirituality against
the onslaught of humanism.
Angelico was also influenced by his fellow monk St.
Antoninus Pierozzi, who became the archbishop of
Florence when Fra Angelico refused the post and who may
have consolidated Angelico's faith. It is believed that
Antoninus also may have inspired some of Angelico's
compositions.
Angelico was probably trained by the greatest painter
and miniaturist of the Gothic tradition, Lorenzo Monaco,
whose influence may be seen in the clear, painstaking
delicacy of execution and the vibrant luminosity that
seem to spiritualize the figures in Angelico's
paintings. These qualities are apparent in two small
altarpieces, "Madonna of the Star" and "The
Annunciation."
Angelico's "Deposition" for Santa Trinita in Florence
was once attributed to Lorenzo Monaco, who had begun it
before he died in 1425. Monaco had divided it into a
triptych and executed the pinnacles. Angelico, however,
made it a unified altarpiece with a vast landscape
dominated by a varicoloured hill town. It is perhaps an
imaginative evocation of Cortona, where Fra Angelico
spent some time and where important works of his are to
be found. Against that background are sharply outlined
human figures in interconnected groups; their features
are so delicately traced that attempts have been made to
identify them as portraits. These arrangements of
figures attest to Angelico's deep knowledge of the
formalism that characterized the art of the early
Renaissance.
Two strands were interwoven in Angelico's life at
Fiesole: the pious life of a monk and continuous
activity as a painter. Vasari described him as "saintly
and excellent," and, not long after his death, he was
called angelico ("angelic") because of his moral
virtues. This subsequently became the name by which he
is best known, often preceded by the word beato
("blessed").
Angelico did not remain absorbed in prayer in his
monastery, however; he knew and followed closely the new
artistic trends of his time, above all the
representation of space by means of perspective. In
works such as the large "Last Judgment" and "The
Coronation of the Virgin," for example, the human
figures receding toward the rear themselves create a
feeling of space similar to that in the paintings of
Angelico's great Florentine contemporary Masaccio. The
earliest work by Angelico that can be dated with
certainty is a triptych of huge dimensions that he
painted for the linen merchants' guild (or Arte dei
Linaiuoli; hence its name, the "Linaiuoli Altarpiece");
it is dated July 11, 1433. Enclosed in a marble shrine
designed by the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti,
this altarpiece represents the Virgin and Son facing
forward, monumentally, and, surrounding them in a minor
key, charming angels, developing the motif of the
"Madonna of the Star." The group has affinities with the
Florentine Maestаs (i.e., Madonna and child enthroned in
majesty) of the 14th century, but the influence of
Masaccio may be seen in the formalism of the
construction, extending in a somewhat strained manner to
the four saints painted on the two folding shutters.
Angelico finished the work with a predella, or narrow
strip of paintings at the bottom: this group of
paintings includes "The Adoration of the Magi" and "The
Martyrdom of St. Mark," which are lucid and compact in
their narrative and have a strictly defined perspective,
a technique that is even more effective in the small
painting depicting the naming of John the Baptist.
In
1436, Angelico was commissioned to paint an altarpiece
for the Brotherhood of Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio,
which he completed by December of that year. In the
serene "Lamentation," he executed figures in silent
contemplation surrounding the dead Christ. Angelico was
inspired by a famous painting by the 14th-century master
Giottino (now in the Uffizi), but he expanded the
subject to include more figures in a more complex
arrangement, and he set them within a melancholy
landscape, extending across the long walls of Jerusalem,
with a leaden overhanging sky. In this painting Angelico
included figures from sacred tradition and persons who
had existed historically, probably to point up the
historical continuity of devotion to the Redeemer.
Also in the 1430s, Angelico painted one of the most
inspired works of the Florentine Renaissance, "The
Annunciation," now in the Diocesan Museum of Cortona, an
altarpiece significantly superior to his two other
paintings on the same subject. It shows the Garden of
Eden with Adam and Eve being driven out by the Angel,
yet also under the sway of the radiant messenger and
pure maiden who are portrayed in the space of a
Renaissance-style portico . The predella is skillfully
divided into stories of the Virgin Mary,
naturalistically portrayed, especially the Visitation,
which has a realistic panorama. Angelico always followed
reality closely, even when he used a miniaturist
technique. Occasionally, he resorted to medieval
techniques, such as a gold background, in deference to
the taste of those who commissioned the work, but his
figures still emerge quite distinctly from the panels,
in the Renaissance manner, revealing the painter's
increasingly sure and harmonious pictorial idiom.
Angelico's "Annalena Altarpiece," also of the 1430s, is,
so far as is known, the first sacra conversazione (i.e.,
"sacred conversation," a representation of the Holy
Family) of the Renaissance.
Years at the monastery
of San
Marco.
Angelico remained in the Fiesole monastery until 1439,
when he entered the monastery of San Marco in Florence.
There he did most of his work as a mural painter. San
Marco had been transferred from the Sylvestrine monks to
the Dominicans in 1436, and the rebuilding of the church
and its spacious monastery began around 1438, from
designs by the Florentine architect and sculptor
Michelozzo. The construction was generously subsidized
by the Medici family. Angelico was commissioned around
1438 by Cosimo de' Medici the Elder to execute the
altarpiece, for which he again painted a sacra
conversazione. When the church was consecrated at
Epiphany in 1443, the altarpiece must have dominated the
place of worship. Angelico portrayed the Virgin and
child raised high on a throne, with saints on either
side receding into space; among them are the two patron
saints of the Medici, Cosmas and Damian. This work, one
of the most compelling Fra Angelico ever created, ends
in a dense grove of cypresses, palms, and pines against
a deep but toneless sky. His figures seem cleansed of
any human passion and to have supreme serenity of
spirit. A predella, showing eight little legends of the
two Medicean saints separated by a Pietа (Virgin Mary
holding the body of Christ), completed the work.
Unfortunately, these paintings are now scattered among
various museums. The narrative in all the scenes is more
organized and simplified than in his previous work, with
creative touches that he was later to carry forward in
his mural painting.
On
the walls of the monastery of San Marco in Florence are
the paintings that mark the high point of Angelico's
career. In the chapter hall, he executed a large
"Crucifixion" that seems akin to the "Moralities" of the
14th century, which urged detachment from worldly
vanities and salvation through Christ alone. In addition
to the three crucified figures against the sky, Angelico
painted groups of ritual figures, rhythmically arranged,
with a chorus of martyrs, founders of religious orders,
hermits, and defenders of the Dominican order (whose
genealogical tree is depicted beneath this striking
scene), as well as the two Medicean saints. Thus, in the
comprehensiveness of this work, Fra Angelico developed a
concept that was barely suggested in his earlier
altarpieces.
He
portrayed the exaltation of the Redeemer in many other
paintings in the monastery's first cloister and in its
cells. In one corridor he executed an Annunciation that
broadened the pattern of his earlier one in Cortona and,
beyond it, a sacra conversazione, bathed in lucid light.
In the cells, he proclaimed devotion to Christ crucified
in at least 20 examples, all related to monastic life.
The pictorial work in these narrow spaces is intricate,
probably the work of numerous hands directed by the
master, including Benozzo Gozzoli, the greatest of Fra
Angelico's disciples, and Zanobi Strozzi, another pupil
better known as a miniaturist, as well as his earliest
collaborator, Battista Sanguigni. The hand of Fra
Angelico himself is identifiable in the first 10 cells
on the eastern side. Three subjects merit particular
attention: a Resurrection, a coronation of the Virgin,
and, especially, a gentle Annunciation, presented on a
bare white gallery, with St. Peter Martyr in prayer,
timidly facing the group, his
coloured habit contrasting with the delicate two tones
of pink in the garments of the Virgin and the Angel. The
cells, originally hidden from public view because of
monastic vows of reclusion, reveal the secret joy of the
painter-monk in creating figures of purity to move his
fellow monks to meditation and prayer. The images in
these paintings are the lyrical expressions of a painter
who was also their prior.
Roman period.
At
the end of 1445 Fra Angelico was called to Rome by Pope
Eugene IV, and he remained there until about 1450. In
the summer of 1447, however, he had undertaken to
decorate the chapel of San Brizio in the cathedral of
Orvieto. Angelico's assistants, above all, Gozzoli,
worked closely with him on two canvases, crowded with
figures, in this chapel. These canvases of Christ the
Judge, amid the hierarchy of angels, and the chorus of
the prophets, respectively, were only partially executed
by Angelico; they were continued more than 50 years
later by Luca Signorelli.
In
Rome, the frescoes that Angelico executed in a chapel of
St. Peter's (c. 1446-47), in the chapel of the Sacrament
in the Vatican (not before 1447), and in the studio of
Pope Nicholas V (1449) have all been destroyed. But the
Vatican still possesses his decorative painting for the
Chapel of Niccolт V. There, he painted scenes from the
lives of Saints Stephen and Lawrence, along with figures
of the Evangelists and saints, repeating some of the
patterns of the predella on his altarpiece of San Marco.
The consecration scene of St. Stephen and that of St.
Lawrence are both set in solemn cathedral interiors, and
the almsgiving of St. Lawrence is set against the
background of a temple. In this scene particularly,
Angelico imbued the poor and afflicted who surround the
deacon-saint with a serenity that purifies them and
illuminates them with an inner light, rendering them
equals of the blessed figures on the altarpieces. At the
same time, the organization of these works and the
rendering of architecture in them mark the culmination
of his development as a Renaissance artist.
Around 1450 Fra Angelico returned to Florence, where,
still a monk, he became prior of the monastery of San
Domenico in Fiesole (1450-c. June 1452). His most
notable work of this time was the cycle of 35 paintings
of scenes from the life of Christ and other subjects,
for the doors of a silver chest in the sanctuary of the
Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. These
works, which have been extensively repainted, are
probably distant echoes of the destroyed paintings in
the Chapel of Niccolт V. Although the authenticity of
these works is disputed, the "Massacre of the
Innocents," "Flight into Egypt," and "Presentation in
the Temple" seem to be Angelico's because of the bright
spontaneity of the slender figures, as well as the
spatiality of the surroundings and the landscape. Such
traits derived from the artist's vast experience in
mural painting. In most of these little pictures,
however, there is a kind of disconnectedness and
weariness, indicating the hand of pupils whose art was a
far cry from Fra Angelico's ineffable poetry. There is
still a certain monumental tone in the late altarpiece
he executed in the monastery of Bosco ai Frati in the
Mugello (now in the Museum of San Marco, Florence). With
the completion of this altarpiece and several other
minor works, Fra Angelico's fertile
artistic labours drew to a close.
In
1453 or 1454, Fra Angelico again went to Rome, where he
died in the Dominican monastery in which he had stayed
during his first visit to Rome. It was close by the
church of Santa Maria della Minerva, where his tomb
remains an object of veneration.
Assessment.
In
addition to the influence he had on his followers, Fra
Angelico exerted a significant influence in Florence,
especially between 1440 and 1450, even on such an
accomplished master as Fra Filippo Lippi. As a monk, Fra
Angelico was lauded in writings of the 15th century and
later, some of which bestowed a legendary halo on him.
As a painter, he was acclaimed as early as 1438 by the
contemporary painter Domenico Veneziano. Giorgio Vasari,
in his section on Angelico in Lives of the Most Eminent
Italian Painters, Sculptors and Architects, was
inaccurate in his biographical data but correctly
situated Fra Angelico in the framework of the
Renaissance. Vasari characterized him in terms that
remained standard until the end of the 18th century,
when writers of the Neoclassical period, using judgments
of a philosophical and didactic nature, placed him out
of his time and even in the 14th century, thus making
him an artist of transition. Almost all modern art
critics, however, place him again within the framework
of the Renaissance. With classical measure, Fra Angelico
embodied a deeply religious attitude.
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