Angelico, Fra' Giovanni da Fiesole known as (c. 1395 -1455) 
- Name:
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Fra' Giovanni da Fiesole, born Guido di Pietro, known as Angelico or Beato Angelico
- Dates:
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Vicchio di Mugello (Florence), documented from 1417 – Rome, 1455
- Attività:
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Dominican friar, painter, illuminator
- Places:
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Vicchio di Mugello (Florence), Fiesole (Florence), Florence, Rome, Orvieto
- Biographical information:
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Born in Mugello probably at the end of the fourteenth century, Guido di Pietro was already active as a painter in 1417. Subsequently, he took his vows with the name of Fra' Giovanni and entered the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole belonging to the Observant Dominicans. His first works, illuminations and panel paintings, denote training in a Late Gothic ambit, influenced by the manner of Gentile da Fabriano and above all that of Lorenzo Monaco, as well as by illumination and goldsmith's ware from northern countries (cf.: Diurno domenicale 3, Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana; Triptych of St. Peter the Martyr, Florence, Museo di San Marco). Very soon, however, Fra' Giovanni began to reveal a growing interest in the work of Masaccio, which then led him to adhere to the new plastic and perspective concept of representation (Missal 558: Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Last Judgement, Florence, Museo di San Marco; Altarpiece of the Holy Trinity, Florence, Museo di San Marco). Thus Beato Angelico translates the synthetic, coherent and monumental language of Masaccio into terms of light, colour and grace, engendering a completely renewed formula of sacred art.
With Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose interests, frequentations and artistic itineraries he shared, Fra' Angelico executed the Tabernacle of the Linaioli for the Flax-workers Guild in 1433 (Florence, Museo di San Marco). In 1438 he moved to the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence, which was being rebuilt by Michelozzo for Cosimo il Vecchio de' Medici. Assigned to execute the pictorial decoration of the complex, Fra' Giovanni painted the altarpiece for the high altar of the church (the Altarpiece of San Marco, 1438-1443, now in the Museo di San Marco) and frescoed numerous rooms in the convent. As the work progressed, his style acquired an ever greater simplification and formal clarity, entering into perfect harmony with Michelozzo's architecture. To terminate this exacting enterprise, which was completed by 1446, he availed of the collaboration of assistants, among whom was Benozzo Gozzoli.
In 1446 Pope Eugenius IV, who had reconsecrated the church of San Marco in Florence three years previously, summoned Fra' Angelico to Rome to perform a number of works – now lost – in St. Peter's and the Palazzo Apostolico. In the summer of the following year Fra' Angelico absented himself temporarily from the Papal city to go to Orvieto where, with Benozzo Gozzoli and other assistants, he began the frescoes in the Chapel of San Brizio in the Duomo (later continued by Luca Signorelli at the end of the century). Having returned to Rome, in 1448 he frescoed the private chapel of Pope Nicholas V (known as the Cappella Niccolina) with Scenes from the Lives of Saints Lawrence and Stephen, where the narration is rendered epic and solemn, paced by scenery of a classical flavour comprising perspective views of Roman architecture.
Having returned to Florence, he painted the Altarpiece of the Bosco ai Frari (1450-52; Florence, Museo di San Marco) for the convent of San Bonaventura in Mugello, of which Cosimo il Vecchio de' Medici was the patron. He was also asked to fresco the choir of the Duomo di Prato, but he declined, and immediately afterwards the commission was passed to Filippo Lippi. In the meantime, in 1450 he became Prior of the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole, a position he occupied up to 1452. The last great work of the painter are the forty panels he painted for the Silver Cupboard of Santissima Annunziata, commissioned by Piero de' Medici (thirty-two panels are now in the Museo di San Marco). The artist then left for Rome once again, where he died on 18 February 1455 and was buried in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.
informazioni generali - apparati e documentazione
