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FRA ANGELICO 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/fraangelicoOOcraw 
 
FRA ANGELICO 
 
 From portrait by Fra Bartolommeo in Sta Maria Novella, 
 Florence. 
 
FRA ANGELICO 
 
 By 
 
 VIRGINIA M* CRAWFORD 
 
 CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY 
 69 Southwark Bridge Road 
 London SJE. 
 
74 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 & 
 
 I N the art, as in the literature, of Italy two 
 opposing streams of tendency are for 
 ever apparent, far more clearly defined than 
 in the art and literature of other countries. 
 The pagan and the Christian element in the 
 national life have struggled for mastery with 
 alternating success for eighteen hundred 
 years, and to-day the battle is no less keen 
 than in the past. The whole nation is drawn 
 into this conflict of ideals : her men of 
 genius enrol themselves under one or the 
 other banner. In every sphere of art 
 Christianity triumphed throughout the thir- 
 teenth and fourteenth centuries ; in the great 
 movement, known as the Renaissance, pagan- 
 ism swept all before it. The Christian ideal 
 gave us Dante and Petrarch and the no ble 
 host of pre-Raphaelite painters ; paganism 
 
8 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 gave us Boccaccio and Titian and Benvenuto 
 Cellini. Among all the painters who through- 
 out the years of the Christian domination 
 vied with one another in doing homage to 
 the Madonna and Child, in glorifying the 
 saints and martyrs of the Church's history, 
 few served her interests with a more whole- 
 hearted devotion, with greater singleness of 
 purpose than the Dominican friar, Fra 
 Giovanni of Fiesole, known to posterity as 
 Fra Angelico ; and none brought to her 
 service talents more rare, a more intimate 
 sense of mystical beauty, a clearer vision of 
 the spiritual world. Fra Angelico will remain 
 for all time the most perfect type of the 
 Christian idealist in art. 
 
 The years of Angelico’s active life, cover- 
 ing the first half of the fifteenth century, 
 correspond with a period of amazing intellec- 
 tual development and rapid artistic growth. 
 In painting, the whole of the fourteenth 
 century was dominated by Giotto, and his 
 pupils and imitators were to be found in 
 every city of Italy. But the early years of 
 the fifteenth marked the dawn of a new 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 9 
 
 era, which by degrees was to transform the 
 art not only of Italy but of all Europe. Until 
 then painting had been the handmaid of 
 religion ; no secular school of painting 
 existed ; Giotto and his master Cimabue 
 laboured solely for the adornment of 
 churches, and the glorification of their faith. 
 But in the fifteenth century, with the spread 
 of learning and an increasing familiarity with 
 the art and literature of ancient Greece, men 
 became filled with a new spirit, with a 
 passionate love of the beautiful for its own 
 sake, a craving after more perfect means of 
 expression. The laws of anatomy and of per- 
 spective, the representation of landscape, 
 the mysteries of light and shade, were all prob- 
 lems in painting — left unsolved by Giotto — 
 which were now felt to clamour for imme- 
 diate solution. Then it was that the seed 
 was sown which was to blossom in those 
 various schools of painting — Tuscan and 
 Umbrian, Paduan and Venetian, distin- 
 guished by special characteristics of form and 
 colour and intention. Angelico stood at 
 the parting of the ways, the unequalled ex- 
 
10 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 ponent of the mystical faith of the Middle 
 Ages, untouched, save in his later years, by 
 the new knowledge. And while he prayed 
 and painted in the calm of his cloister, un- 
 mindful of the world beyond, Florence, 
 teeming with intellectual and artistic life, was 
 taking her place in the forefront of the new 
 movement, which, as the Renaissance, was to 
 sweep all before it. 
 
 “From this period,” writes Mrs Jameson, 
 “ we date the great schism in modern art, 
 though the seeds of this diversity of feeling 
 and purpose were sown in the preceding 
 century. We now find, on the one side, a 
 race of painters who cultivated with astonish- 
 ing success all the mental and mechanical 
 aids that could be brought to bear on their 
 profession ; profoundly versed in the know- 
 ledge of the human form, and intent on 
 studying and imitating the various effects of 
 nature in colour and in light and shade, 
 without any other aspiration than the repre- 
 sentation of beauty for its own sake, and 
 the pleasure and the triumph of difficulties 
 overcome. On the other hand, we find a race 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 ll 
 
 of painters to whom the cultivation of art 
 was a sacred vocation, the representation of 
 beauty a means, not an end ; by whom 
 nature in her various aspects was studied 
 and deeply studied, but only for the purpose 
 of embodying whatever we can conceive or 
 reverence as highest, holiest, purest in heaven 
 and earth, in such forms as should best 
 connect them with our intelligence and with 
 our sympathies.”* 
 
 Fra Angelico was born in the year 1387, 
 in the little village of Vicchio in the province 
 of Mugello, high up among the slopes of the 
 Apennines. It was but a few miles off that, 
 a hundred years earlier, Cimabue had come 
 upon the shepherd-boy, Giotto, making his 
 first drawings with a stone on a bit of 
 smooth slate. The child received in bap- 
 tism the name of Guido or Guidolino, 
 that of his father was Pietro, and as 
 no intimation of any surname has come 
 down to us, it is probable that, in 
 accordance with a common custom of 
 the time, he was known in boy- 
 
 * Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters, p. 84. 
 
12 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 hood simply as Guido di Pietro. Of his 
 early years we know practically nothing, 
 save only that he had a brother, and that the 
 historian Vasari relates of him that “ it 
 would have been easy for him to lead a 
 pleasant life in the world, as he was not 
 lacking in fortune, and his precocious talent 
 could have provided without difficulty for all 
 his wants.” But the boy’s gentle refined 
 nature and his deep mystical faith led him 
 early to the cloister, and he was not yet 
 twenty when he and his brother presented 
 themselves at the door of the then recently 
 founded convent of Fiesole, and begged 
 to be clothed in the Dominican habit. 
 
 It has been confidently assumed by 
 his biographers that it was as a copyist 
 and miniaturist that Angelico had given 
 early proof of his artistic skill. We feel 
 indeed that it can hardly have been other- 
 wise, knowing, as we do, that many of the 
 characteristics of the miniature painter re- 
 mained with him throughout his artistic 
 career, and knowing also that it was to this 
 branch of the art of painting that his brother, 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 13 
 
 Fra Benedetto, devoted his life. In begging 
 for admission to the Dominican Order the 
 brothers would have had no fears lest they 
 were cutting themselves off from the cultiva- 
 tion of their artistic tastes. It is a remarkable 
 fact that, from the first simultaneous out- 
 spreading of the two Orders of St Francis 
 and St Dominic throughout southern Europe, 
 these wandering, preaching friars had been 
 closely identified with the development of 
 Christian art, and their churches became 
 store-houses of artistic treasure. 
 
 Early in the preceding century the Fran- 
 ciscans had applied to Giotto to decorate the 
 church of San Francesco at Assisi, erected 
 over the tomb of their founder; and Giotto, in- 
 spired to his task by his friend Dante, painted 
 the frescoes which are considered the crown 
 of his life’s work. Forthwith Assisi became 
 a place of pilgrimage, as it remains to this 
 day, not only for the pious Franciscan, but 
 for all connoisseurs in religious art. So too 
 the great Franciscan church of Santa Croce 
 at Florence was adorned with frescoes by 
 Giotto and his friend Taddeo Gaddi, and all 
 
14 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 that was most beautiful in the mural art of 
 the century. 
 
 The Dominicans had been even more 
 zealous in their patronage of the fine arts. 
 Their aim was the propagation of divine 
 truth, and they realized from the first that 
 in the arts of architecture and sculpture and 
 painting the spoken word found its most 
 eloquent auxiliary. So the building of 
 churches and their due decoration was ac- 
 cepted as the necessary complement to their 
 preaching apostolate. They numbered more 
 than one skilled architect among the early 
 members of their Order, and it was in accord- 
 ance with the designs of two of their own 
 brethren, Fra Sis to and Fra Ristoro, that 
 the glorious church of Santa Maria Novella 
 was erected, the foundation-stone of which 
 was laid in 1272. Thus, in point of fact, 
 they were the earliest builders of any im- 
 portant monumental church at Florence. 
 For the internal decoration of this splendid 
 edifice, Cimabue, Orcagna and Taddeo 
 Gaddi contributed some of their finest 
 work. In sculpture also not a few Do- 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 15 
 
 minicans showed themselves proficient, 
 while in many of their convents they 
 cultivated the allied arts of manuscript 
 copying and miniature painting, and en- 
 riched their libraries with many valuable 
 tomes. Thus it was clear that any novice 
 endowed with artistic talent who presented 
 himself at their door, was certain to meet 
 with every encouragement. 
 
 In his choice of the Dominican house 
 at Fiesole as his future spiritual home, 
 Fra Angelico was undoubtedly influenced 
 by a strong personal consideration. Blessed 
 John of Dominici, the prior and founder of 
 the convent, was not only a man of great 
 strength of character and unquenchable 
 zeal for his Order, but he was himself no 
 mean artist, and was in the habit of urging 
 the study of painting upon all the com- 
 munities that he founded or reformed, 
 declaring it to be a powerful means of 
 elevating the soul and of filling the heart 
 with holy aspirations. Two great disasters, 
 the constant ravages of the plague and the 
 spiritual disorders consequent upon the 
 
i6 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 schism within the Church, had gone far to 
 destroy the first fervour of the Dominican 
 brethren, and it was upon Blessed Dominici 
 that the task fell of re-introducing a stricter 
 observance of the rule into the Italian 
 communities of his Order. Towards this 
 object he laboured incessantly for many 
 years; and it was with this aim in view 
 that he himself, in the year 1400, founded 
 a convent at Fiesole, exquisitely situated 
 on the hill-side above Florence, with fourteen 
 friars chosen from among the brethren of 
 the reformed house at Cortona. 
 
 It is not surprising that the fame of such 
 a man should have attracted the pure child- 
 like nature and burning faith of the youthful 
 Guido ; and hither, probably in 1406, he and 
 his brother came, receiving respectively the 
 names of Giovanni (or John) and Benedetto. 
 It was by the name of Fra Giovanni that the 
 painter was known through long years to his 
 fellow-religious ; it was only later that by 
 common consent there was conferred on 
 him the title of Fra Angelico, or II Beato, 
 as a tribute to his angelic virtues, equally as 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 17 
 
 a friar and as an artist. And thus it is 
 as Fra Angelico that he has come to be 
 known and loved by posterity. 
 
 Angelico was not the only elect soul 
 drawn to Fiesole by the magnet of the prior’s 
 personal holiness. The strictness of the dis- 
 cipline and the religious fervour of the 
 inmates combined to make of the convent 
 a veritable nursery of saints. Among his 
 early companions were several destined, like 
 their prior, to the honours of beatification ; 
 but above all Fra Angelico found there 
 a devout youth, his own junior in years, who 
 was to be his life-long friend and protector. 
 This was St Antoninus, the future prior of 
 St Mark’s, and one of the greatest of 
 Florentine archbishops. Amid this little 
 company of fervent souls Angelico must 
 have felt quickly at home. It is, however, 
 uncertain whether the year of his novitiate 
 was spent at Fiesole or at the mother-house 
 at Cortona. We only know that both he 
 and his brother had returned there previous 
 to the expulsion of the brethren from their 
 convent. 
 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 The community at Fiesole had been 
 drawn unavoidably into the ecclesiastical 
 controversies of the time ; for, on the death 
 of Innocent VII in 1406, .Blessed John of 
 Dominici was sent as an envoy to Rome by 
 the republic of Florence, to urge upon the 
 College of Cardinals the wisdom of delaying 
 the election of the new pope until means 
 could be devised for bringing the schism to 
 an end. Benedict XIII was at that time 
 reigning at Avignon. Dominici, however, 
 arrived in Rome too late to prevent the 
 election of Gregory XII, and he could only 
 use his influence to induce the new pope to 
 promise to abdicate his functions, should his 
 rival at Avignon agree to do likewise. On 
 this basis the Council of Pisa was summoned ; 
 but in the end it only added to the confusion, 
 for neither pontiff resigned, and their respec- 
 tive colleges agreed together to depose them 
 and to elect in their stead Alexander V. 
 Dominici remained faithful to Gregory, to 
 whom he had become much attached, and 
 the community at Fiesole accepted his 
 guidance. The republic of Florence, how- 
 
Fi*a Angelico 
 
 19 
 
 ever, declared themselves in favour of 
 Alexander V, and the friars found themselves 
 forced to fly from their convent, in order 
 to avoid the possible violence of the populace, 
 in 1409. They took refuge at Foligno, and 
 remained there until driven forth by the 
 plague which ravaged Umbria in the year 
 1414, when the brethren returned once more 
 to the mother-house at Cortona. 
 
 The ten years of early manhood which, 
 in consequence of these events, Fra Angelico 
 spent in beautiful Umbria, exercised a per- 
 manent influence upon his art. They were 
 a time of preparation for the long years of 
 artistic productiveness which were to follow 
 at Fiesole and at Florence. It was in 
 Umbria that were laid the foundations of 
 that deep spiritual life which gave to his 
 painting its most unique quality. Here he 
 was in the home of St Francis, a land that 
 had been swept by a wave of religious 
 emotion, the effects of which were still visible 
 on every side and were to provide the in- 
 spiration of the great Umbrian school of 
 painting which was springing into life at this 
 
20 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 time. At the very period when, at 
 Florence, the technicalities of painting had 
 become the object of an ardent study, when 
 Ghiberti was modelling the famous bronze 
 gates which were to mark an epoch in the 
 development of Tuscan art, the young friar 
 was hurried away to a sphere where religious 
 inspiration was still accepted as of infinitely 
 greater importance than technical skill. 
 Midway between Foligno and Cortona lay 
 Assisi, and there is no temerity in assuming 
 that Fra Angelico enjoyed many opportuni- 
 ties of familiarizing himself with the noble 
 frescoes of Giotto, and of penetrating his 
 soul with something of the extraordinary 
 spiritual charm which even to-day still lingers 
 over the little grey town in which the seraphic 
 saint lived and laboured. 
 
 Angelico is in no direct sense a pupil of 
 Giotto ; in point of fact he can be claimed as 
 the direct pupil of no one, and his types of the 
 human form have little in common with the 
 curiously elongated figures with straight 
 narrow draperies, almond-shaped eyes and 
 prominent jaws which are characteristic of 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 21 
 
 the Giottesque school. Yet the first principles 
 of fresco decoration he may well have 
 studied in the church of St Francis. In his 
 delicacy of execution and the refined grace 
 of his female figures he is in far closer 
 harmony with his contemporaries at Siena, 
 and some of his biographers have therefore 
 assumed that a portion of these early years 
 must have been spent in that city. There 
 seems, however, to be no direct evidence of 
 any such visit; and the strict discipline, which 
 we know to have been maintained by John 
 of Dominici among his community, would 
 not have lent itself easily to much travelling 
 among the youthful brethren in those trou- 
 blous times even for purposes of study. The 
 visit to Siena, if it took place at all, must be 
 put at a later date, when it can hardly have 
 exercised any determining influence on our 
 artist’s methods. 
 
 Again, though this Umbrian period 
 left its stamp on Fra Angelico, he has few 
 affinities in manner and technique with the 
 Umbrian school, the centre of which was to 
 be found at Perugia. Neither, strangely 
 
22 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 enough, does he seem to have carried away 
 with him any vivid memories of the exquisite 
 undulating landscape, which Perugino never 
 wearied of painting as a background to his 
 saints and Madonnas. The influences of 
 these years were mainly spiritual ; the peace 
 and solitude of the cloister and the intangible 
 and yet potent charm of beautiful natural 
 surroundings, amid which man lives closer to 
 God and to nature than is possible in any 
 city, strengthened his character, and gave 
 that definite impulse to his genius which he 
 derived from no human teacher. It was 
 there, surely, that his painting acquired that 
 quality of serenity which Mr Ruskin places 
 among the first essentials of the highest art. 
 The spiritual bonds that from the first had 
 united the followers of Dominic and of 
 Francis were ever exceedingly close — how 
 close we can see for ourselves in the con- 
 tinual juxtaposition of the figures of the two 
 founders in all religious art of these centuries, 
 and it is in no way derogatory to the sterner 
 saint to whom Angelico had vowed allegiance, 
 to believe that something, at least, of the 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 23 
 
 sweetness and the humility and the holy joy 
 of his character came to him through his 
 long and intimate association with the cradle 
 of the Franciscan Order. Turbulent Florence, 
 with all her exuberant artistic life, could 
 not have given him what he acquired in 
 these ten years of peaceful retirement. 
 
 We must realize something of the per- 
 sonality of this wonderful friar if we would 
 rightly understand his pictures. He com- 
 bined a very rare artistic genius with an 
 exquisite holiness and purity of life. If he 
 was one of the world’s greatest painters, he 
 was also through all the years of his man- 
 hood a humble and devout son of St Dominic. 
 To Fra Angelico painting was prayer. He 
 never took brush in hand save for the greater 
 glory of God ; he never painted for money, 
 neither did he ever undertake any save 
 religious subjects. He drew r his inspiration 
 direct from Holy Scripture, of which he was 
 a constant, even a learned, student. His 
 own portrait, painted however only from 
 tradition by the Dominican artist, Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo, shews him with a wide noble 
 
24 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 forehead, a sensitive, weil-cut mouth and 
 large eyes cast down, a face at once strong 
 and gentle and radiant with inward peace. 
 How deep an impression his sanctity made 
 on his contemporaries we gather from the 
 pages of the Florentine Vasari, who, writing 
 in the sixteenth century, speaks of him as 
 follows : 
 
 “ Fra' Giovanni was a man of simple and 
 blameless life ; he shunned the world, and he 
 led a life of such purity and holiness and 
 served the poor with such fervent zeal that 
 I believe his soul must now be in heaven. 
 He painted incessantly, but he would never 
 paint other than sacred subjects. He might 
 have amassed a fortune, but he scorned to do 
 so, saying that true riches consisted simply in 
 being content with little. . . . He might 
 have enjoyed dignities both within and with- 
 out his convent, but he refused, saying that 
 his sole ambition was to escape hell and win 
 heaven. . . . Humane and temperate, he led 
 a chaste life, avoiding the snares of the world, 
 and he was wont to declare that peace and 
 quiet were essential to the pursuit of art, that 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 25 
 
 he who illustrates the acts of Christ should 
 live in His presence. He was never known to 
 indulge in anger against his brethren, a most 
 rare virtue, and one that seems almost 
 unattainable ; and he never admonished his 
 friends save with a smile. If he received an 
 order for a painting, he would first consult the 
 wishes of his superior ; permission once 
 granted, he was always ready to perform his 
 part, tn a word, this father, whose loss can 
 never be sufficiently mourned, was always 
 modest and humble in all his actions, and in 
 his pictures tender and pious. No one, so 
 well as he, knew how to confer upon saints 
 the air and semblance of real sanctity. He 
 never retouched or altered anything he had 
 once finished, but left it as it was, believing it 
 to be the will of God that it should be so.” 
 We feel no difficulty in accepting all that 
 Vasari records of the personal holiness of 
 the artist-friar, when we stand before one of 
 his pictures. Michael Angelo, it is said, 
 spent many months penetrating his mind 
 with the spirit of Savonarola s sermons before 
 he painted the “ Last Judgement” in the 
 
26 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 Sistine chapel. Fra Angelico, I feel tempted 
 to believe, nourished his mind on the 
 “ Imitation of Christ,” when he was not 
 studying Holy Scripture ; for it is the spirit 
 of the “ Imitation,” the spirit of the Gospel 
 of St John, that illuminates his canvases. 
 His faith was as far removed as may be from 
 that of the Calvinist ; he dwelt on the divine 
 love, not on the divine wrath ; he saw Our 
 Lord not as Judge, but as Redeemer; his 
 thoughts rested on the joys of the Beatific 
 Vision, he could not contemplate the terrors 
 of hell. The faces of his saints and angels 
 are permeated with his deep mystical faith ; 
 their ideal beauty speaks not of earth but of 
 heaven. 
 
 In his Madonnas Fra Angelico realized 
 a new type in Christian art, young and 
 graceful and exceedingly fair, expressive 
 both of an ethereal dignity and an exquisite 
 humility, at once the Mother of God and the 
 “handmaid of the Lord.” His saints are 
 rapt in ecstasy ; his martyrs suffer with 
 a serene smile ; his angels, with all the 
 charm of ingenuous youth, are possessed 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 27 
 
 of a divine beauty which has never been 
 surpassed by any artist, and which led 
 Michael Angelo to exclaim that the good friar 
 must have visited paradise and have been 
 allowed to select his models from among 
 those he saw there. He had a passion for 
 clear brilliant colouring, holding it to be 
 symbolical of the celestial joys ; and his 
 pigments were so admirable that much has 
 come down to us in all its pristine freshness. 
 His pictures are full of vivid blues and pinks 
 and greens, frequently painted upon a gold 
 background ; but the tints are so pure and 
 true, and the arrangement is so faultless in 
 its simplicity, that the result is a harmony of 
 beautiful tones. 
 
 The very limitations of the monk’s artistic 
 powers are, in a sense, the outcome of his 
 constant absorption in the divine mysteries. 
 His spiritual vision was so intense that he 
 may be said to have had no eyes for the 
 material world that surrounded him. 
 
 “His works,” writes Mrs Jameson, “are 
 not remarkable for the usual merits of the 
 Florentine school. They are not addressed to 
 
28 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 the taste of connoisseurs, but to the faith of 
 worshippers. Correct drawing of the human 
 figure could not be expected from one who 
 regarded the exhibition of the undraped 
 form as a sin. In the learned distribution 
 of light and shade, in the careful imitation 
 of nature, in the details and in variety of 
 expression, many of his contemporaries 
 excelled him ; but none approached him in 
 that poetical and religious fervour which he 
 threw into his heads of saints and Ma- 
 donnas.” 
 
 It must be admitted that Fra Angelico 
 was in no sense an observer of nature. 
 The backgrounds of his pictures, where 
 they are not filled with some graceful 
 cloistral arcade, usually represent one or two 
 stiff trees and monastic buildings convention- 
 ally grouped and of primitive perspective. 
 Only here and there he gives us, in the fore- 
 ground a flowering field somewhat primly 
 disposed, but so gay in colour, so delicate in 
 execution, that it adds a delightful note to 
 the scene. There is always something child- 
 like in his treatment of his subject, and his 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 29 
 
 critics have complained, with reason, that in 
 point of technique he learned little or nothing 
 from his great contemporaries at Florence. 
 But it is quite a question whether he could 
 ever have adapted the methods of others, 
 however superior, to his own needs. He 
 approached his art from a different stand- 
 point from theirs, and his manner is so 
 characteristic that it may be accepted as the 
 natural product of his genius and his piety. 
 He never wholly abandoned his early habit 
 of miniature painting, even for his larger 
 compositions, laying on his colours with an 
 exceeding delicacy and precision. But his 
 frescoes at the Vatican, the last great work 
 of his life, undoubtedly show greater freedom 
 of drawing, and a more developed sense of 
 composition. 
 
 Again, Fra Angelico is seldom dramatic ; 
 his treatment of his theme is never realistic, 
 never illustrative of human passions. Where 
 he has wished to express energy of action or 
 angry passions, he has generally failed. The 
 peace of his own soul pervades his canvases, 
 and the very fact that his personages are one 
 
30 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 and all expressive of an angelic goodness 
 gives a certain monotony to his types. Sin 
 was so far removed from his thoughts, that 
 he could not paint its effects on the human 
 face and form, and his “Last Judgements” are 
 always wanting in truth and vigour. It is as 
 though he turned with relief from those who 
 are cast out from heaven, to the joyful figures 
 of the blessed, towards whom his whole soul 
 yearned. He is at his happiest recording the 
 tender hopeful scenes in the history of man’s 
 redemption ; the Annunciation and the 
 Coronation of our Lady appealed to him in 
 a quite special manner, for each is typical of 
 the purest spiritual joy. Even the representa- 
 tion of human grief does not come easily 
 to him, and death for him is shorn of well 
 nigh all its bitterness. Thus we must not 
 seek in Fra Angelico for the majestic force 
 of a Michael Angelo, for the infinite range of 
 a Raphael ; yet within the limits of his 
 cloistral genius no one of the great Italian 
 painters has given us a more etherealized 
 humanity, a more ideal representation of our 
 Christian faith. 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 31 
 
 Very little has come down to us of Fra 
 Angelico’s early paintings ; much even that 
 he is known to have painted at Cortona has 
 been lost or destroyed. Some frescoes on 
 the monastery walls — probably the first that 
 he ever painted — were removed during the 
 occupation of the town by the French ; and 
 the only fresco which is to be seen there 
 now, a representation of the Virgin and Child 
 with St Peter and St Dominic and the four 
 evangelists, above the door of the monastic 
 church, belongs to a later date and must 
 have been painted on the occasion of a sub- 
 sequent visit. But enough remains at 
 Cortona to show that the work of the young 
 monk, if bearing a certain impress of youth- 
 fulness and marked by an inevitable stiffness 
 of composition, had, nevertheless, acquired 
 all the main characteristics of his maturer 
 productions. There hangs in the church of 
 St Dominic a “ Madonna and Child,” sur- 
 rounded by four angels, painted for the high 
 altar, full of a tender beauty and an exquisite 
 purityof colour and conception. In thechurch 
 of the Gesii, in the same city, there are two 
 
32 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 predelle , painted, according to custom, with 
 a succession of small scenes. One is 
 devoted to the main incidents in the life of 
 St Dominic, and the little figures — more 
 especially in the meeting of St Dominic and 
 St Francis, in the episode of the angels 
 bringing food to the community, and in the 
 death of the saint surrounded by his weeping 
 brethren — breathe a wonderful spirit of love 
 and faith and resignation. On the other 
 hand, in the raising to life of the nephew of 
 Cardinal Ceccani, where a realistic represen- 
 tation of the surprise of the bystanders is 
 called for, the sense of dramatic action is 
 lacking, and the figures are stiff and lifeless. 
 The second predella, recording the life of 
 the Blessed Virgin, resembles in many par- 
 ticulars the better known pictures dealing 
 with the same subjects in the Uffizi Gallery 
 at Florence ; but both the delightful little 
 “ Espousals ” of the Virgin and the “ En- 
 tombment” are held by some critics to 
 possess greater originality and freshness in 
 the early Cortona versions. 
 
 The picture, however, at the Gesii which 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 33 
 
 deservedly attracts the most attention is the 
 first of that series of representations of the 
 Annunciation, which must be numbered 
 among the most characteristic of Fra 
 Angelico’s works. Never before had any 
 artist treated the subject in so reverent 
 a spirit, with so intimate an appreciation of 
 its spiritual significance. No elaboration of 
 detail is allowed to detract from the central 
 conception , the humility of Mary and the 
 grave homage of the archangel. Beneath 
 a graceful colorWade the Virgin is seated, her 
 long slim hands crossed on her breast, her 
 head bent towards the celestial messenger; and 
 Gabriel, in a flowing pink embroidered robe 
 and with long golden wings, bends his knee 
 before the Mother of God, and delivers his 
 message, pointing upwards with outstretched 
 finger to the Dove hovering over her head. 
 In the far background we see the figures of 
 Adam and Eve driven from the Garden of 
 Eden, thus directly connecting, as the artist 
 was wont to do, the events of the New Testa- 
 ment with those of the Old. Later represen- 
 tations of the Annunciation repeat, with 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 greater or less elaboration, the exquisite 
 qualities of this early work. 
 
 To the Umbrian period belongs also 
 a large altar-piece, originally designed for the 
 church of St Nicholas at Perugia, but which 
 is now broken up into fragments and dis- 
 tributed between the picture gallery at 
 Perugia and the Vatican galleries in Rome. 
 The central group of the Madonna and 
 Child closely resembles that of the Cortona 
 altar-piece, but the distinctive feature of the 
 Perugian version lies in the number of red 
 and white roses introduced, both in the 
 baskets carried by the attendant angels, and 
 in three vases primly disposed in the fore- 
 ground. The face of the Virgin, with eyes 
 very far apart and a tiny mouth, is rather 
 wanting in expression ; but the little nude 
 figure of the holy Child standing erect on 
 His mother’s knee, grasping a pomegranate 
 in one hand, is most child-like and winning. 
 The attendant saints, St John, St Catherine, 
 St Dominic and St Nicholas, were con- 
 ventionally ranged on either side — a proof of 
 the early date of the painting — but each is 
 
35 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 of great individual beauty. The predella, 
 which is considered to form part of the 
 picture, contains a very delightful series of 
 little scenes from the life of St Nicholas, and 
 m the frame were a dozen little figures of 
 saints, some very much damaged, which are 
 now to be seen in the Pinacoteca at 
 Perugia. It is impossible to gain any general 
 impression of this importantworkinits present 
 fragmentary condition, but all its component 
 parts are worthy of study. 
 
 During these years at Cortona the Do- 
 minican community had not relinquished 
 the hope of returning to their home at 
 Fiesole, although, as their original deed of 
 possession contained a clause to the effect 
 that an absence of two months from the 
 convent rendered null all their rights over 
 the property, the difficulties to contend with 
 were considerable. Blessed John of Do- 
 minici carried on the negotiations, and an 
 agreement was at length arrived at between 
 the Pope and the Bishop of Fiesole, by which 
 the friars-preachers were allowed to regain 
 possession on condition of presenting their 
 
36 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 episcopal superior with a church ornament, 
 worth a hundred ducats. This they were fortu- 
 nately in a position to do, thanks to a legacy 
 they inherited at the time from the father of 
 St Antoninus ; and as another patron made 
 them a present of 6,000 florins, they were 
 not only enabled to return to their con- 
 vent in 1418, but to undertake extensive 
 additions to the fabric. 
 
 Here, in the great, bare, whitewashed 
 building, amid the olive trees of the hill- 
 side, Fra Angelico prayed and painted 
 unceasingly for eighteen long years. We 
 know by the result how favourable to his 
 genius were the conditions of monastic life. 
 He lived at peace with all men ; he was free 
 from material troubles, free from the petty 
 worries of human vanity and jealousy, pro- 
 tected by his vows from the temptations of 
 the world. Yet, curiously enough, in these 
 very years a young Carmelite friar, known to 
 posterity as Filippo Lippi, was breaking away 
 from his friary at Florence, in order to 
 pursue his art untrammelled by religious 
 obligations. What he gained in one direc- 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 37 
 
 tion he lost in another, and to-day, putting 
 altogether aside the moral considerations 
 involved, his fame as an artist stands scarcely 
 as high as that of the Dominican friar 
 who, in his humility, was content to labour 
 all his life beneath the shadow of the cloister, 
 and whose methods were despised by the 
 sons of the Renaissance. Of this beautiful 
 placid life, so rich in productiveness, John 
 Ruskin has given in “ Modern Painters ” 
 a prose picture which brings vividly before 
 us all its spiritual value : — 
 
 “ Angelico [lives] in perpetual peace, 
 not seclusion from the world. No shutting 
 out of the world is needful for him. There 
 is nothing to shut out. Envy, lust, con- 
 tention, discourtesy are to him as though 
 they were not ; and the cloister walk of 
 Fiesole no penitential solitude, barred from 
 the stir and joy of life, but a possessed land 
 of tender blessing, guarded from the entrance 
 of all but holiest sorrow. The little cell was 
 as one of the houses of heaven prepared for 
 him by his Master. What need had it to be 
 elsewhere ? Was not the Val d’Arno, with 
 
38 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 its olive woods in white blossom, paradise 
 enough for a poor monk ? Or could Christ 
 be indeed in heaven more than here ? Was 
 He not always with him ? Could he breathe 
 or see but that Christ breathed beside him 
 and looked into his eyes? Under every 
 cypress avenue the angels walked ; he had 
 seen their white robes, whiter than the dawn, 
 at his bedside as he awoke in early summer. 
 They had sung with him, one on each side, 
 when his voice failed for joy at sweet vespers 
 or matin time ; his eyes were blinded by 
 their wings in the sunset when it sank be- 
 hind the hills of Lunid' 
 
 Many of Fra Angelico’s most beautiful 
 altar-pieces date from the Fiesole period. 
 Some were intended for the monastic church ; 
 others were commissions executed for the 
 different religious orders in and around 
 Florence; but to-day, in almost all cases, the 
 pictures have been removed from their 
 original resting-place, and are to be found 
 scattered among the art galleries of Europe. 
 At Fiesole itself but little remains of the 
 artistic treasures that once constituted its 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 39 
 
 glory ; even some frescoes painted for the 
 chapter-room and refectory have been torn 
 away from the walls, and are to be seen 
 to-day at Paris and at St Petersburg. The 
 one now at the Louvre represents the 
 Crucifixion, with St Dominic clasping the foot 
 of the cross, arid Our Lady and St John 
 standing on either side ; but the painting has 
 suffered so much both from injury and from 
 restoration that it is little more than a lovely 
 wreck. Another Crucifixion still exists in 
 the church sacristy at Fiesole, and in the 
 choir of the church there hangs the centre 
 portion of a great altar-piece intended 
 originally for the high altar. The exquisite 
 gradino in three parts has fallen to the share 
 of our own National Gallery, and will be 
 described later. It, happily, is in excellent 
 condition, but the picture itaelf representing 
 the Madonna and Child with saints seems to 
 have suffered very rapid deterioration, for as 
 early as 1501 it was partially repainted 
 by Lorenzo di Credi. A very beautiful 
 “ Annunciation,” closely resembling the 
 one at Cortona, painted for the convent 
 
40 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 church, is now in the possession of the 
 Spanish government at Madrid. But the 
 greatest loss which the Fiesole church has 
 sustained is that of the celebrated “ Corona- 
 tion of the Virgin/’ a portion of the artistic 
 spoils which Napoleon’s generals had orders 
 to forward from Italy for the embellishment 
 of the French capital, and which Louis XVIII 
 failed to give back at the Restoration. 
 It hangs now in the Louvre, in that delight- 
 ful narrow gallery devoted to the Italian 
 Primitis . 
 
 The “ Coronation ” was a very favourite 
 subject with Fra Angelico. He painted it 
 in all some five or six times, but none of the 
 representations are equal in pure loveliness 
 to the picture of the Louvre, save perhaps 
 the one that now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery 
 at Florence, which was originally designed 
 for the Dominican church of Santa Maria 
 Novella. Concerning these two works of 
 art and their respective merits much has 
 been written by artists and critics. Though 
 in a general sense the subject of both is 
 identical, the painter, so it seems to me, has 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 41 
 
 in each case treated the event from a 
 different point of view, and hence the varia- 
 tions in the representation. The picture in 
 the Louvre shows us the moment of Our 
 Lady’s Coronation. She kneels before her 
 divine Son, in the presence of the angelic 
 host, and He places the crown upon her 
 head. In the picture at the Uffizi, on the 
 contrary, we are shown the Blessed Virgin 
 with her Son in a state of glory ; she no 
 longer kneels, but is seated beside Him, her 
 crown upon her head, and both are en- 
 veloped in rays of golden light. The one 
 may be said to be the complement of the 
 other, and as in point of time it is the 
 Louvre picture that has precedence, it must 
 be the first to be described in detail. 
 
 In this wonderful canvas, which is painted 
 in distemper and measures some seven feet 
 in height by six in width, Fra Angelico can 
 be studied to greater advantage than in 
 any other painting outside Florence. Of it 
 Vasari tells us that he never saw it without 
 finding new pleasures in it, and that when 
 forced to quit it he had never gazed at it 
 
4 2 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 enough. M. Huysmans, in his recent volume 
 “ La Cathedrale,” devotes many pages to a 
 subtle analysis both of its symbolical inten- 
 tion and its technical qualities, and declares 
 that it transcends all painting in that it 
 embraces regions into which mystical art had 
 never penetrated. Angelico, he says, is the 
 painter of the soul immersed in God; his 
 angels and saints have attained to the 
 supreme degree of mysticism ; he shows us 
 the plenitude of tranquil joys, the peace of 
 man rendered divine. The light and brilliant 
 colouring, the innumerable golden halos, the 
 ethereal expression of the faces all serve to 
 intensify the marvellous sense of heavenly 
 joy and illumination which form the unique 
 quality of this picture. 
 
 Under a stately gothic baldachino 
 adorned with graceful twisted columns, the 
 majestic figure of the Redeemer, draped in 
 rich robes, places with both hands a crown 
 on the head of His Mother kneeling at 
 His feet. It is on the figure of the 
 Virgin, so fair and young, her hands crossed 
 on her breast and her long mantle falling 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 43 
 
 in beautiful straight folds from her slim 
 shoulders that the artist has concentra- 
 ted all his powers of mystical expression. 
 Her head is covered with a transparent veil, 
 allowing a full view of her face in clear-cut 
 profile against the golden glory. She pos- 
 sesses an exquisite charm, an ineffable grace ; 
 she personates the most perfect purity, the 
 Immaculate Mother, the Queen of Virgins. 
 On either side are groups of angels with 
 musical instruments, painted as only Angelico 
 could paint them, and below them to right 
 and left of the gold inlaid steps are grouped 
 a host of saints and martyrs of either sex. 
 In these faultlessly disposed groups we can 
 note a very marked advance upon the stiffly 
 ranged figures of the artist’s earlier work. 
 To the left we see St Louis in royal garb 
 conversing with St Thomas Aquinas, St 
 Nicholas in an embroidered cope, St Francis, 
 St Dominic with a lily, and many more. To 
 the right St Mary Magdalene in a red robe 
 with flowing hair seen only from the back, an 
 exquisite kneeling figure of St Cecilia in pale 
 blue crowned with roses, St Agnes with her 
 
44 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 lamb, St Catherine with her wheel, St Clare, 
 St Ursula, and the youthful figure of St 
 Lawrence holding the gridiron. In colour 
 the prevailing note is the pale bright blue 
 into which Fra Angelico conveyed a sense of 
 purity unapproached by any other artist, and 
 which he introduced so lavishly into the 
 “ Coronation ” as being symbolical of virgin 
 chastity. Below, on the gradino, he has 
 painted another delightful series of little scenes 
 from the life of St Dominic, with the Resurrec- 
 tion of Christ in the centre. These it is true 
 have suffered a good deal from attempts at re- 
 storation, from which indeed the picture itself 
 has not wholly escaped. Happily for us its 
 material beauty has remained substantially 
 unimpaired. 
 
 The description of the picture at the Uffizi 
 I give in the words of M. Miintz, who brings 
 out with great clearness its salient characteris- 
 tics. 
 
 “ Compared with the picture at the 
 Louvre,” he writes, “ the Coronation of the 
 Virgin ” at the Uffizi Gallery is a most aerial 
 composition. In the centre the figure of 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 45 
 
 Christ, holding a globe in His left hand, 
 stretches out His right to add some rich 
 jewel to the crown of Mary, who no longer 
 kneels before Him, but is seated at His side. 
 A choir of angels celebrates the praises of 
 Mother and Son. From the centre of the 
 scene there shoot forth rays of gold, which are 
 engraved on the wood itself, and which form, 
 as it were, a vast sea of light. Against this 
 dazzling background saints of either sex stand 
 out, their faces aglow with celestial joy. The 
 lower part of the composition is filled with 
 kneeling angels holding musical instruments. 
 They are placed outside the circle of radiated 
 light, and appear to be at an immeasurable 
 distance from the Redeemer; it is as though 
 a gulf lay between them. Rarely has so 
 sumptuous an effect been obtained by such 
 simple means. Taken individually each 
 figure appears as though transfigured : the 
 soul pierces through the terrestrial form. The 
 youthful blond heads, full of an indescribable 
 freshness and grace, remind one of the 
 Primitive School of Cologne .... In the 
 female saints the type is perfection, in the 
 
46 
 
 Fra. Angelico 
 
 male it is perhaps a little lacking in virility. 
 The transparent glow of the atmosphere 
 which envelopes the scene is almost magical, 
 and recalls the ether which Virgil describes 
 in his picture of the Elysian Fields.”* 
 
 Another celebrated picture of this period 
 which hangs in the Ufifizi is the large altar-piece 
 executed for the Gild of Flax- workers. The 
 life-sized Madonna, seated on a throne with 
 the Holy Child — a robed, upright, doll-like 
 little figure with curling hair — on her knee, is 
 rather stiff in attitude and insipid in expression. 
 The great popularity of the picture lies in the 
 fact that it is surrounded by twelve angels 
 painted on the frame-work, all with musical 
 instruments in their hands and with tongues 
 of flame burning on their foreheads, who are 
 endowed with such ethereal beauty that they 
 have been reproduced more frequently than 
 any other work of the friar. It was said of 
 them by Vasari that they looked as though they 
 had been piovuti dal cielo , rained down from 
 heaven. The figures which are painted on 
 
 * Histoire dc V Art pendant la Renaissance, 
 Vol. I, “ Les Primitifs " ; par Eugene Muntz. 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 47 
 
 both the inner and outer sides of the shutters 
 include a characteristic St John the Baptist 
 and two representations of St Mark, the 
 protector of the Guild. For this work of art, 
 as we learn from the original contract still in 
 existence, the flax-workers paid to the painter, 
 or rather to his prior, the sum of a hundred 
 and ninety gold florins. It was specially 
 stipulated that both inside and out, none but 
 the very best materials should be used. 
 
 One of the most ambitious, and in 
 certain respects one of the most beautiful 
 of the pictures painted at Fiesole, now 
 to be seen in the gallery of Fine Arts at 
 Florence, is the “Last Judgement,” a sub- 
 ject the artist treated five times with but 
 little variation in the composition. Of this 
 great work M. de Montalembert has given a 
 long and eloquent description in his volume, 
 “Du Vandalisme et du Catholicisme dans 
 l’Art.” It shows the painter at once in his 
 weakness and in his strength. Intended for 
 the Camaldolese monks of St Mary of the 
 Angels, the picture is divided into sections, 
 and contains in a small space an immense 
 
48 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 number of figures. Every detail of colour 
 and composition in this crowded canvas 
 symbolizes some dogmatic truth concerning 
 the Day of Judgement. The open tombs 
 occupy the centre of the lower part of the 
 picture, and above, in a mandorla , or almond- 
 shaped space, appears Our Lord in glory, richly 
 robed, turning His closed left hand to the lost 
 while with His right He beckons to the elect. 
 He is surrounded by a circle of kneeling 
 angels in varying attitudes of prayer and 
 praise, each tiny figure a perfect miniature. 
 Immediately beyond the circle kneel the 
 Blessed Virgin and the Baptist in attitudes of 
 tender intercession. Beneath the feet of 
 Christ an angel holds aloft a cross, while his 
 companions sound the great trumpets at 
 whose summons the graves have given up 
 their dead. To right and left in double rows 
 are seated the patriarchs and apostles, serene 
 and majestic, to whom have been added the 
 figures of St Francis and St Dominic. 
 
 The lower part of the picture is filled on 
 either side by the innumerable host of the 
 blessed and the lost. The latter, including in 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 49 
 
 their number kings, cardinals and monks, are 
 seized by demons, and dragged towards hell, 
 where the seven deadly sins are punished in 
 seven separate circles ; the former are em- 
 braced by their guardian angels, and led to 
 the gates of heaven. If the conception of 
 Hades is borrowed from the frescoes of the 
 Campo Santo at Pisa, and is executed with 
 a certain coldness and conventionality, that of 
 the blessed entering upon the enjoyment of 
 the Beatific Vision is the direct outcome of 
 the glowing mystical faith of Angelico, and it 
 is over this . portion of the composition that 
 all will linger. In none of his works has he 
 conveyed such a sense of celestial bliss as in 
 this exquisite group of the elect gathered in 
 a flowery field, crowned with roses, their faces 
 radiant with love and joy, their attitudes 
 expressive of an almost playful happiness. 
 Behind them rise up the walls of the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, bathed in golden light, to which 
 the elect wend their way hand in hand with 
 their guardian angels. The prominence given 
 to the angelic host throughout the composition 
 is easily accounted for by the original destina- 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 tion of the painting. There is an amazing 
 variety in the personages and the attitudes 
 depicted among the blessed, yet, as Monta- 
 lembert points out, there is no sense of 
 confusion or unrest. They have attained to 
 the Infinite ; they are bound together in the 
 eternal unity of God’s love. The scene might 
 have been conceived in illustration of some 
 of the most beautiful lines in Dante’s 
 “Paradiso.” Certainly the celestial vision of 
 the painter is no whit inferior in mystical 
 beauty to that of the greatest of Catholic 
 poets. 
 
 A second “ Last Judgement ” hangs in 
 the Berlin Museum, and yet a third in the 
 Corsini Gallery in Rome. This picture is 
 on a very small scale, and forms the central 
 panel of a triptych, the sides of which are 
 painted with the Ascension and the Descent 
 of the Holy Ghost. The general arrange- 
 ment of the composition is the same as that 
 of its predecessors, though necessarily sim- 
 plified by the restricted space. Christ, as 
 Judge, rests one hand on the open Judge- 
 ment Book, and with the other seems to 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 condemn the unrepentant sinners, 
 joyous group of the blessed is a£ 
 strong contrast to the rather puerile group of 
 the lost falling headlong into hell ; while the 
 presence among the latter of so many monks 
 and nuns may be taken as showing the high 
 ideal of the religious life which the artist 
 kept ever before him. 
 
 It was through the friendly offices of 
 Cosimo de’ Medici, a great benefactor of 
 the Dominican Order, and, like all his house, 
 an enlightened patron of the fine arts, that 
 the community at Fiesole came to Florence 
 in the year 1436. Cosimo was the first of the 
 great house of merchant princes to establish 
 undisputed sway over the Republic of 
 Florence. He was at this time at the 
 height of his power ; he had been exiled, 
 and he had been recalled ; his presence was 
 held essential to the well-being of the city, 
 while his generosity, his vast wealth and his 
 cunning all combined to make him the idol 
 of the populace. Cosimo was well acquainted 
 with the works of Fra Angelico, for his 
 country house was situated on the outskirts 
 
 library 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF IIUNOIF 
 
52 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 of Fiesole, and more than once he had 
 entrusted a commission to the artist friar. 
 It may therefore be assumed that the 
 presence of Angelico among the community 
 was not without its weight in the determina- 
 tion of Cosimo to bring the reformed 
 Dominicans into Florence. The friars of 
 St Sylvester, who at that time were in posses- 
 sion of the church and monastery of St 
 Mark, gave much scandal through the laxity 
 of their rule. Cosimo petitioned Eugenius 
 IV to transfer the buildings to the Domini- 
 cans, pointing out the need of a zealous and 
 numerous community in so central a situa- 
 tion ; and the pope, who had the reform of 
 the religious houses deeply at heart, not only 
 acceded to the request, but ordained that 
 the transfer should be accomplished with 
 all possible solemnity. Three bishops, 
 a long procession of monks and. clergy and 
 a vast concourse of people escorted the 
 friars to their new home. With them came 
 Fra Angelico and his brother, Benedetto, 
 and thus the long peaceful years at Fiesole 
 were brought to a close, and a new life 
 
Ft*a Angelico 
 
 53 
 
 entered upon which was necessarily more in 
 touch with the outside world. 
 
 The ancient monastery of St Mark’s was 
 in so deplorable a condition owing to a fire 
 in the preceding year, that its new tenants 
 found themselves compelled to erect little 
 wooden cells for their temporary accommoda- 
 tion. They quickly resolved not only to 
 restore and decorate the church in a worthy 
 manner, but practically to rebuild the whole 
 monastery. This was done in accordance 
 with very extensive plans designed by Miche- 
 lozzi, one of the greatest architects of his day. 
 It was to Cosimo de’ Medici that the friars 
 looked — and not in vain — for the means to 
 carry out this scheme, which cost, indeed, no 
 less a sum than 36,000 gold ducats, and it 
 was to Fra Angelico that they turned for the 
 decoration of the new buildings. Cosimo 
 further undertook to provide all the Psalters 
 and Graduales for the choir, and the illumi- 
 nation of these he entrusted to Fra Benedetto. 
 In the end, we are told, the monastery, with 
 its beautiful cloistered quadrangle, its spa- 
 cious library with sixty-four presses of cypress- 
 
54 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 wood filled with precious volumes, its large 
 chapter-room and refectory and dormitories, 
 was one of the finest and most commodious 
 in all Italy. For posterity it possesses a two- 
 fold interest : it enshrines the most beautiful 
 work of Fra Angelico, and it was destined 
 to become, within a few years of his death, 
 the scene of the stormy labours of Savonarola. 
 
 To the Church of St Mark Fra Angelico 
 contributed but a single picture for the high 
 altar — a Madonna and Child surrounded by 
 saints - a work of which Vasari writes in 
 terms of enthusiastic praise, but which un- 
 happily to-day is in so lamentable a condi- 
 tion that it is impossible to arrive at any 
 right estimate of its qualities. It is interest- 
 ing to note in the foreground the kneeling 
 figures of SS. Cosmas and Damian, the 
 patron saints of the Medici family, who are 
 clearly introduced as a compliment to the 
 illustrious benefactor of the Order. We 
 shall find them again in many of the monk’s 
 later works. 
 
 It is not to the church but to the cells 
 and cloisters of the convent that we must go 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 55 
 
 if we would see Fra Angelico at his greatest, 
 for it was there he worked under conditions 
 peculiarly favourable to his genius. 
 
 In thus undertaking mural decoration on 
 a somewhat large scale, it is obvious that 
 Fra Angelico found himself under the 
 necessity of modifying methods which were 
 closely akin to those of miniature painting. 
 It was clearly not sufficient merely to enlarge 
 the figures of his earlier paintings. The 
 new conditions under which he was to work 
 required greater breadth and nobility in the 
 composition, a more detailed accuracy in 
 the delineation of the human form. That 
 Fra Angelico understood this, and adapted 
 his art with such admirable results to the 
 demands made upon him — that, in a word, 
 he showed himself to be in touch with those 
 early manifestations of the Renaisance 
 which were already moulding the artistic 
 life of Florence — disposes once and for all of 
 the accusation levelled against him by his 
 critics, that he was obstinately wedded to 
 a method of treatment which even in his 
 own day was considered elementary. 
 
56 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 The circumstances at St Mark’s were such 
 as appealed with peculiar force to the genius 
 and piety of the monk. Here he was 
 painting, not for the outside world, not for 
 the pecuniary advantages of his Order, but, 
 in the most direct way, for the beautifying of 
 a house of prayer, for the spiritual edifica- 
 tion of his brethren. Here he could freely 
 pour out all his treasures of love and 
 devotion, all his deep mystical faith, all the 
 poetic visions of his soul. For over four 
 hundred years this unique series of 
 religious paintings remained hidden from 
 the public, unknown to the world at large, 
 within the enclosure of the convent. We 
 can scarcely regret that at length they have 
 been thrown open to our reverent gaze, even 
 though at the cost of the laicization of the 
 building. To this money-making and money- 
 worshipping age, in which self-advertisement 
 is accepted as an almost indispensable con- 
 dition of success, the frescoes at St Mark’s 
 are a supreme example of the self-effacement 
 that religion alone can inspire, of the total 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 57 
 
 indifference to the praise of men which is 
 an adjunct of true greatness. 
 
 On entering the beautiful vaulted cloister 
 of St Mark’s, built round the inner quad- 
 rangle beside the church, the visitor sees 
 before him a life-sized representation of 
 Christ upon the Cross, with St Dominic 
 kneeling at his feet, clasping the wood with 
 both hands, and gazing upwards at his 
 Master with an expression of intense sorrow 
 and devotion. The figure of Our Lord is a 
 type of many that Fra Angelico painted, 
 young and gentle, and yet with a marvellous 
 dignity. In his conception there is scarcely 
 anything of the sternness and horror of death; 
 he always preferred to represent Our Lord 
 still living on the Cross, awaiting death with 
 a divine serenity. In this fresco He is gazing 
 downwards on His follower with an ex- 
 pression of tender devotion. The figure of 
 St Dominic has so much individuality that 
 it has sometimes been assumed that it was 
 an authentic portrait of one of the com- 
 munity, to which the star and halo of 
 
58 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 the founder were added at a later date. 
 Some even have tried to see in it a portrait 
 of Fra Angelico himself, of whom we have 
 unhappily no contemporary likeness. But 
 it must be remembered that the friar was 
 essentially an idealist in art, and that all his 
 figures are drawn from his imagination. It 
 was only later in life and, as it were, reluc- 
 tantly, that he occasionally adopted what 
 was fast becoming the common practice of 
 introducing portraits of living men and 
 women into historical and religious composi- 
 tions. To paint his own portrait, even as a 
 suppliant at the feet of Christ, would surely 
 have been contrary to that self-effacing 
 humility which was one of his most charac- 
 teristic virtues. 
 
 The lunettes over the principal doors in 
 this same cloister are decorated with scenes 
 and figures symbolical of the virtues that 
 should be found within the convent walls — 
 a portrait of St Peter Martyr, with finger on 
 his lip enjoins silence ; St Thomas Aquinas, 
 now unhappily very much damaged, repre- 
 sents theological learning; and St Dominic 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 59 
 
 holding the rule of the Order, religious 
 discipline. Over the door of the guest- 
 chamber, as being emblematical of the spirit 
 of hospitality that should reign there, Fra 
 Angelico painted Our Lord in the garb of a 
 pilgrim being received by two friars of the 
 Order, an eager' welcome depicted on their 
 countenances. The fifth lunette is filled with 
 a Pieta, a half-length figure of Christ rising 
 from the tomb and showing His wounded 
 hands and side, most tender and pathetic in 
 expression. 
 
 The end wall of the great chapter- room 
 is occupied by a large mural representation 
 of the Crucifixion. It is one of the master- 
 pieces of the artist, and is known to well nigh 
 every one in reproductions. Here we see 
 the whole traditional scene of Calvary, with 
 groups on either side of saints and doctors 
 and founders of religious orders. The figure 
 of Our Lord on the Cross is a replica of the 
 one, already described, in the cloister, but 
 here it is placed at a great height as though 
 to dominate the world, and it is flanked to 
 right and left by the penitent and impenitent 
 
6o 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 thieves. We note at once that there is here no 
 overwhelming sense of tragedy save in the 
 group of the holy women, supported by St 
 John, at the foot of the cross, which is per- 
 haps the least successful in composition ; the 
 prevailing sense is rather that of a gentle 
 grief lit up by an ecstatic devotion and 
 a tender hope in man’s redemption. There 
 is unusual dramatic power in the various 
 attitudes of the on-lookers, each one of whom 
 is worthy of individual study. Among the 
 most beautiful are a kneeling figure of St 
 Dominic in the foreground with hands up- 
 lifted towards his Saviour in an attitude of 
 suppliant adoration ; St Francis with head 
 resting on his hand in melancholy contempla- 
 tion, and an unnamed monk weeping on his 
 knees, with his head turned from the awful 
 sight. To the left of the cross we note the 
 noble prophetic figure of St John the Baptist, 
 who so frequently inspired the artist to his 
 highest endeavour, a youthful St Lawrence 
 with clasped hands, and SS. Cosmas and 
 Damian. Near them kneels St Mark, as 
 protector of the convent, the only dis- 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 61 
 
 appointing figure in the composition, which 
 has been usually attributed to the brush of 
 Fra Benedetto. The background by a 
 painful act of vandalism, has been painted 
 over a dull red colour, and here and there 
 the drapery of the figures has suffered 
 considerably from restoration, but happily 
 the faces have come down to us uninjured 
 in all their varying expressions. Beneath 
 the fresco, in a long line, Fra Angelico has 
 added a series of fine circular portraits of the 
 most distinguished members of the Order, 
 with the founder in the centre; and in the 
 border, which has been painted round the 
 fresco, there appear at intervals half-length 
 figures of the prophets, holding banderoles 
 on which are inscribed texts from the 
 prophetical books. 
 
 Yet beautiful and deserving of prolonged 
 study as these frescoes are, visitors will feel 
 tempted to hurry onwards to the smaller 
 paintings which decorate the walls of the 
 upper corridors and cells, and which repre- 
 sent some of the friar’s most inspired work. 
 There is no attempt at general decoration, 
 
62 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 but in each of the cells — low and narrow and 
 badly lit by small arched windows — there is 
 a single painting of medium size, so that at 
 all times each friar should have before his 
 eyes some scene illustrative of the redemption 
 of man by Jesus Christ. In many of the 
 compositions may be noted the figure of St 
 Dominic, always distinguished by a red star, 
 or of some other Dominican saint, so that 
 the brethren should be constantly reminded 
 of the glories of their Order. In some of the 
 forty-two cells thus decorated the Crucifixion 
 alone appears, though always with some 
 variation in the figures that kneel around 
 the Cross ; in a few the treatment is so 
 inferior that the work has been held to be 
 that of an auxiliary hand, possibly that of 
 Fra Benedetto ; others have been much 
 damaged by time and damp, and yet more by 
 unskilful attempts at restoration. Yet there 
 remains fully enough to reveal to us all 
 the beauty and all the deep religious signifi- 
 cance of the scheme. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the treatment of the 
 St Mark’s frescoes shows a far greater simpli- 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 63 
 
 city than the pictures painted for the 
 decoration of churches ; and the fact lends 
 additional support to the belief that they 
 were intended solely for the spiritual edifi- 
 cation of the monks. In the Annuncia- 
 tion in the upper corridor, the bare cloistral 
 arcade, the unadorned robes of the Virgin, 
 give an added solemnity to the scene. 
 The same is true of the smaller Annun- 
 ciation, which adorns one of the cells. The 
 exceedingly beautiful “Virgin and Saints,” 
 also in one of the corridors, with its stately 
 marble background, so full of early Renais- 
 sance influences, is destitute of all minor 
 ornament ; but the tenderness in the face of 
 the Blessed Virgin, the beauty of the Holy 
 Child, the dignity of the attendant saints, 
 the admirable grouping of the figures, more 
 than compensate for the greater elaboration 
 of workmanship in his earlier paintings. 
 Again, the “ Coronation of the Virgin ’ y at 
 St Mark’s is held by many to be the loveliest, 
 as it is certainly the simplest, of all Fra 
 Angelico’s renderings of this subject. In it 
 the circle of angels, so conspicuous a feature 
 
64 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 of the earlier versions, has been swept away, 
 and the crowd of saints and martyrs has been 
 reduced to a semicircle of six saints in 
 ecstasy, St Dominic and St Francis facing 
 each other in the centre. Our Lord and His 
 Mother appear on clouds in diaphanous 
 white robes, a grave majesty in the attitude 
 of the One, an eager humility in that of the 
 other. It is impossible to conceive a treat- 
 ment better adapted to excite devotion. 
 
 All the frescoes in the cells represent 
 some scene in the life of Our Lord and His 
 Mother. It is impossible in the space at our 
 disposal to draw attention to more than a few 
 of the most beautiful: an exquisite “Noli 
 me tangere,” Mary Magdalene kneeling as 
 a suppliant at the feet of Our Lord in a 
 flowery field; a “Transfiguration,” in which 
 the robed figure of Christ, standing with out- 
 stretched arms, is full of majesty, though the 
 general effect is somewhat marred by the 
 conventional attitudes of amazement of 
 the apostles ; and a “ Holy Women at the 
 Sepulchre,” gazing with sorrowful counte- 
 nances at the empty tomb. Above them, in 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 65 
 
 a mandorla , appears the radiant figure of the 
 risen Christ; but Him they do not see, 
 although the angel seated on the tomb points 
 upwards with outstretched finger. In the 
 representation of the “ Last Supper ” Fra 
 Angelico has adhered to the tradition 
 derived from Giotto, and has shown the 
 disciples gathered round a table and Our 
 Lord passing from one to the other pre- 
 senting to each the consecrated Host; but 
 he added a happy innovation of his own in 
 making four of the apostles leave their seats 
 and kneel humbly on the floor awaiting the 
 coming of the Master. 
 
 Among the cells is one much larger 
 than the rest — that which was reserved for 
 the use of the benefactor of the convent, 
 Cosimo de’ Medici, on the many occasions 
 when he came for a time of prayer and seclu- 
 sion or to visit his friend St Antoninus. 
 This cell is also reported to have been 
 occupied by Pope Eugenius on the occasion 
 of his visit to Florence to assist at the conse- 
 cration of the conventual church on the Feast 
 of the Epiphany, 1442. Here, probably in 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 commemoration of the last-named event, the 
 friar painted an “ Adoration of the Magi ” 
 above a “ Pieta.” The “ Adoration ” was one 
 of his favourite subjects, which he treated in 
 two ways. In the picture in the Florence 
 Museum, one of the kings, who may be pre- 
 sumed to have performed his act of homage, 
 is conversing in the background with St 
 Joseph, while the second kneels at the feet of 
 the Holy Child, and the third waits his turn, 
 his offering in his hands. In the fresco at St 
 Mark’s, however, and in our picture in the 
 National gallery, St Joseph stands alone be- 
 hind the Virgin Mother, and the two kings 
 wait while the oldest of their number pros- 
 trates himself on the ground, and kisses the 
 feet of the Babe on His Mother’s knee. 
 A larger number of attendants than usual are 
 introduced, with a greater variety of Eastern 
 types. Yet, as M. Miintz has pointed out in his 
 great work on the Italian Renaissance, in this, 
 as in all other representations of the scene, 
 far from devoting his talents like his contem- 
 poraries to clothing the three kings in sump- 
 tuous raiment, Fra Angelico has attempted to 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 67 
 
 express above all their deep humility and 
 their unequalled veneration for the Divine 
 Child. Unhappily the fresco has suffered 
 much from unskilful restoration, and is now 
 in very bad condition. 
 
 Visitors to St Mark’s will also find there 
 three small reliquaries painted originally for 
 the church of Santa Maria Novella, and which 
 date from Fra Angelico’s residence at Fiesole. 
 They are very beautiful specimens of his 
 earlier manner, full of elaborate and 
 exquisitely executed detail. On two of 
 them we find once more the painter’s 
 favourite subjects of the Annunciation and 
 the Coronation of the Virgin, and on the 
 third a very well-known Madonna and Child 
 surrounded by dainty angels. 
 
 Fra Angelico was not allowed to reserve 
 his talents for the sole benefit of his 
 brethren. His fame as the most devotional 
 painter of his time was spreading rapidly, not 
 only in Florence, but throughout northern 
 Italy ; and other religious orders, the 
 Carthusians and Camaldolese and the 
 monks of Vallombrosa, were all eager to 
 
68 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 adorn their churches with pictures from 
 his brush. 
 
 Fra Giovanni was a very prolific painter, 
 and the number of authentic pictures by him 
 still in existence is exceedingly remarkable, 
 especially when we remember that many of 
 his minor works have been lost sight of. 
 The Academy of Fine Arts in Florence owns 
 the largest collection of his pictures, and it is 
 here that a number of the commissions 
 executed during the friar’s residence at 
 St Mark’s are to be seen. Of these the 
 most important is undoubtedly the “ Descent 
 from the Cross,” painted for the church of 
 the Holy Trinity, one of the most elaborate 
 and carefully executed of all Fra Angelico’s 
 larger works. It is crowded with figures, 
 the centre being occupied with the lifeless 
 body of Our Lord, which is being reverently 
 lowered from the Cross by Nicodemus and 
 Joseph of Arimathea, while St Mary 
 Magdalene, with streaming hair, passion- 
 ately kisses His feet, and the Blessed 
 Virgin clasps her hands in melancholy 
 contemplation. It is characteristic of the 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 69 
 
 artist that even his Hill of Calvary 
 should be gay with flowers, and the 
 tragedy of the picture is further modified 
 by a beautiful mountain landscape to the 
 right, and a vision of Jerusalem in quaint 
 perspective to the left. Groups of angels 
 appear in the sky, and the ornamented 
 wooden framework of the painting bears 
 delicate little figures on either side. Above 
 the picture, under a kind of triple Gothic 
 pediment, there are three small paintings by 
 the Camaldolese monk, Lorenzo Monaco. 
 As however this superstructure is not in any 
 way in harmony with the general design of 
 the picture, and as there is no valid reason 
 for supposing that a portion of such a work 
 would be entrusted to less skilful hands, we 
 are safe in assuming that it was added at 
 a later date. 
 
 At the Academy there hangs also the 
 most extensive series of small panel pictures 
 that Fra Angelico ever executed. It illus- 
 trates, in thirty-five little pictures, the life 
 and death of Our Lord, and was designed 
 originally for the doors and panels of a press 
 
70 
 
 Fra Angelioo 
 
 in the sacristy of the church of the 
 Annunziata in Florence. It is worth 
 noting that in those days the sacristies, as 
 forming an integral portion of the church, 
 received their full share of decoration, not 
 only in paintings, but in carved and inlaid 
 woodwork for the presses and in tiled floors 
 of exquisite design ; and even to-day, as 
 travellers in Italy are aware, the best artistic 
 treasures are often to be found in the spacious 
 old sacristies of mediaeval churches. The 
 fact that the series was never completed by 
 the artist seems to show that in point of time 
 it belongs to the closing year of his residence 
 at St Mark’s, and that his departure for 
 Rome forced him to leave his undertaking to 
 be completed by some less competent hand. 
 
 Artistically Fra Angelico seems to have 
 suffered somewhat from this sudden re- 
 version from fresco-painting to work on 
 a very reduced scale ; the composition is 
 sometimes crowded and conventional, and 
 many of the designs are but slightly varied 
 replicas of earlier and larger works. It is, 
 however, difficult to pronounce with any 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 71 
 
 certainty as to the parts which are really the 
 work of his brush ; it is an accepted fact that 
 he received assistance in his task, and it is 
 more than probable that a considerable 
 number of the figures may be attributed to 
 his brother Benedetto. We are told by 
 Vasari that the two brothers frequently 
 worked at the same undertaking, and in the 
 present instance many of the figures present 
 just those defects of clumsiness and heavi- 
 ness which are characteristic of all Fra 
 Benedetto’s attempts at the human form. 
 The real interest of the series is rather re- 
 ligious and theological than artistic. It 
 supplies a convincing testimony not only to 
 the friar’s intimate familiarity with holy 
 writ, but to his grasp of dogmatic theology. 
 This may be seen not only in the pictures 
 themselves, but by the appropriate double 
 texts affixed to each, indicating the types and 
 prophecies of the Old Testament and their 
 fulfilment in the New. 
 
 Moreover, in order to weld his scheme into 
 one harmonious whole, Angelico has added at 
 the beginning and at the end two pictures of 
 
72 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 profound and subtle symbolical meaning. 
 The first, the “ symbolical wheel,” is derived 
 from the vision in the prophecies of Ezechiel, 
 as interpreted by the commentaries of St 
 Gregory. The outer wheel with its twelve 
 figures represents the Old, and the inner 
 with its eight figures the New Testament; 
 and to each symbolical figure are given 
 appropriate titles and insignia. The closing 
 picture, called “The Law of Love,” re- 
 presents an erect cross between scriptural 
 personages from the Old and the New 
 Testament, each holding banderoles, on 
 which are inscribed texts ; those chosen 
 from the New Testament indicating the ful- 
 filment of those from the Old. Beneath the 
 foot of the Cross a seven-branched candle- 
 stick represents the seven sacraments ; and 
 here, too, a similar scheme of corresponding 
 texts has been carefully worked out. Rio, 
 the French critic, in his great work, De 
 VArt Chrttien , writes of the series as follows : 
 “ Worthily to appreciate this great work 
 we must study it in its entirety as it was 
 conceived by the profound genius of Fra 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 73 
 
 Angelico. Wishing to give unity to his 
 design, as to a dramatic poem, he placed at 
 the beginning and at the end, in the guise 
 of prologue and epilogue, two symbolical 
 pictures, the meaning of which may at first 
 seem obscure to those who are not familiar 
 with Holy Scripture ; but by degrees one 
 discerns the most ingenious combinations, 
 especially in the lower part of the composi- 
 tion, where the seven-branched candlestick 
 is made to serve as a support to texts from 
 the Old and the New Testament having 
 reference to the seven sacraments. It is 
 clear that the painter might have developed 
 the symbolical side of his art with as great 
 a success as the mystical side.” 
 
 M. Cartier, the French biographer of Fra 
 Angelico, regards this biblical series as an 
 important link in the chain of evidence by 
 which he attempts to prove that the painter 
 was in holy orders. That he was a choir 
 friar seems certain — he is referred to as 
 a clerk in the monastic register at Fiesole, 
 and he is represented on his tomb in the 
 choir habit — although it has sometimes been 
 
74 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 assumed that he was only a lay-brother. 
 Whether or no Fra Angelico offered the 
 Holy Sacrifice of the Mass seems a point 
 likely to remain enveloped in obscurity. 
 There is no affirmative evidence in support 
 of the contention, and nowhere do we hear 
 of him fulfilling priestly functions. M. Cartier 
 argues that Fra Benedetto, who filled 
 successively the posts of sub-prior at St 
 Mark’s and prior of St Dominic’s at Fiesole, 
 was certainly a priest, and that we are 
 justified in assuming that his more dis- 
 tinguished brother was a priest likewise. 
 Again he tells us that Eugenius IV could not 
 have offered the archbishopric of Florence to 
 one who was not a priest. But he forgets 
 that the offer itself rests on a somewhat 
 slender foundation, and that, even supposing 
 it were made, Fra Angelico might well have 
 been only in minor orders, in which case his 
 ordination could easily have preceded his 
 consecration. However this may be, it is 
 certain, as M. Cartier points out, that Fra 
 Angelico was not in any sense illiterate, and 
 that he possessed greater theological learning 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 75 
 
 than the average priest of his time, a point 
 which has been frequently overlooked by his 
 biographers. 
 
 Among the many smaller works which 
 hang in the Academy of Fine Arts we should 
 note more especially two pictures of the 
 Madonna and Child with saints which were 
 originally intended, the one for the Franciscan 
 church at Mugello and the other for the 
 Dominicans of St Vincent d’Annalena. Both 
 are interesting as marking a transition 
 in arrangement and in the grouping of the 
 figures between the Giottesque stiffness of 
 the previous century and the complete 
 naturalness of the later fifteenth-century 
 artists. We see in both the marble back- 
 ground with cupola and niches, which, in 
 Fra Angelico’s later works, came to replace 
 the earlier altar-piece arrangement. A first 
 and very stately example may be seen in 
 the fresco of the Virgin with saints in the 
 upper corridor at St Mark’s, and in the later 
 Vatican frescoes we shall see the same 
 architectural scheme take on very noble 
 proportions. 
 
76 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 Fra Angelico was not destined to end 
 his days in his beloved St Marks. Pope 
 Eugenius IV, who, on the occasion of his 
 visit to Florence, had had ample opportunity 
 for convincing himself, not only of the genius, 
 but of the unusual sanctity of the friar, 
 summoned him to Rome some three years 
 later, in 1445, to carry out some decoration at 
 the Vatican. It is further related by Vasari, 
 though apparently on somewhat uncertain 
 evidence, that, on the archbishopric of 
 Florence falling vacant, the Pope wished to 
 confer the see upon Angelico, and was only 
 deterred by the extreme modesty of the 
 friar, who shrunk from such honours for 
 himself, and proposed as his substitute the 
 Prior of St Mark’s, St Antoninus. The 
 painter was at this time approaching his 
 sixtieth year, but his brush was very far 
 indeed from betraying any loss of skill. 
 Unhappily the frescoes which he painted for 
 Eugenius IV, and of which Vasari speaks in 
 the highest terms, no longer exist, as the 
 little chapel in the Vatican in which they 
 were situated was destroyed at a later date to 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 77 
 
 make room for the staircase leading up to 
 the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 Eugenius died in 1446, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Nicholas V ; and it was probably 
 in the months that followed the conclave 
 that Fra Angelico made a long stay at 
 Orvieto and commenced a scheme of 
 decoration in the chapel of the Blessed 
 Virgin in the cathedral. This splendid 
 edifice, in which the Orvietans took a noble 
 pride, was being decorated by the best 
 artists in Italy. We read in the official 
 records of the council entrusted with the 
 supervision of the work, how a Dominican 
 friar, by name Fra Giovanni, actually 
 employed by the Supreme Pontiff at the 
 Vatican and “ the most celebrated of all the 
 painters of Italy,” was invited to undertake 
 the decoration of this chapel, at which he 
 was to work during the three summer months 
 when his presence would not be required in 
 Rome. The subject decided on was the 
 Last Judgement. From the many interesting 
 details of the agreement, to be signed by 
 both parties, we learn that the friar was to 
 
78 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 be paid at the rate of two hundred golden 
 ducats a year, with all his expenses and an 
 allowance for his three assistants. The chief 
 of these was his distinguished pupil Benozzo 
 Gozzoli; and when, for some reason unknown 
 to us, Fra Angelico failed to return to Orvieto 
 in subsequent years, it was to Benozzo that 
 the disappointed Orvietans ultimately trans- 
 ferred the commission. Hence, it has proved 
 impossible to decide with unerring precision 
 as to the respective contributions of the two 
 artists. To Angelico undoubtedly belongs 
 a group of prophets against a gold back- 
 ground in a spandrel of the domed roof, ad- 
 mirable in their calm dignity, but critics have 
 differed as to whether the central figure of 
 Christ encircled by angels on the vaulting of 
 the chapel is the work of the master-hand 
 alone. It is admittedly inferior in conception 
 to the prophets, but, on the other hand, it is 
 so notably superior in force and nobility to 
 the Christ which Benozzo painted at Monte- 
 falco, that it has always been included among 
 the works of his master. 
 
 The death of Eugenius and the elevation 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 79 
 
 of Nicholas V to the chair of Peter did not 
 result in any diminution of the esteem in 
 which Fra Angelico was held at the papal 
 court. Like his predecessor, Nicholas was 
 an enlightened patron of the fine arts. He 
 was, moreover, a man of great learning, and 
 it was his aim to make of Rome not only the 
 centre of the religious world, but the home of 
 the arts and sciences as well. His pontificate 
 marks at once the end of the papal schism, 
 and the rise of that great movement which 
 was to give to the world the Rome of the 
 Renaissance with all its wealth of sculpture 
 and painting and architectural beauty. 
 Nicholas had learned to know and appreci- 
 ate the friar on the occasion of a visit to 
 Florence, and the latter was only one of the 
 many artists of his day whom it was the 
 pleasure of the Pope to honour. A little 
 anecdote related by Vasari shews at once 
 the simplicity of the Fra and the friendly 
 terms on which he was received at the papal 
 court Nicholas having invited him one day 
 to remain to dinner, Fra Giovanni had 
 a scruple about eating meat without the ex- 
 
8o 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 press permission of his prior, quite forgetting 
 that the authority of the sovereign pontiff 
 was all-sufficient. It was on the invitation 
 of Nicholas that Fra Angelico carried out 
 the crowning labour of his life — the covering 
 with frescoes of the walls of a small oratory 
 in the Vatican, known to us as the chapel of 
 Nicholas V. 
 
 Thus was initiated that great series of 
 mural paintings which constitutes to-day one 
 of the chief glories of the Vatican, and which 
 includes the noblest names in Italian art. 
 The little chapel, no larger than a small 
 room and devoid of all architectural pre- 
 tensions, is covered on three sides with 
 paintings, the upper series illustrating the life 
 of St Stephen, the lower that of St Lawrence. 
 That two subjects so similar should have 
 been treated in close juxtaposition without 
 any repetition in design or composition is in 
 itself no mean tribute to the friar’s imagina- 
 tive gifts. The arrangement of the upper 
 series is as follows : 
 
 i. St Peter confers the diaconate upon 
 St Stephen , . The saint, a youthful monkish 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 81 
 
 figure, kneels at the feet of St Peter, and 
 stretches out both hands to receive from him 
 the chalice. The venerable vicar of Christ 
 stands on a low altar-step, and bends towards 
 the neophyte in an attitude of benign 
 paternity. It is significant of the influence 
 of Roman surroundings on the artist that he 
 should be robed in a toga. The architecture 
 is of noble proportions, but it may be noticed 
 that the baldachino over the simple altar is 
 so low that St Peter could not possibly have 
 stood erect beneath it. 
 
 2. St Stephen distributes alms to the 
 poor. 
 
 3. He preaches the Gospel . This is one 
 of the most beautiful of the series. The 
 saint, wearing the Roman toga over his 
 dalmatic, expounds some point of Christian 
 doctrine to a little group of earnest women 
 seated on the ground before him in attitudes 
 of rapt attention. Behind them stand a few 
 men full of admiration for the preacher’s 
 words. The composition is exceedingly 
 simple, but it is pervaded by a sentiment of 
 tender piety. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 4. St Stephen defends himself before the 
 Council . Here the figures are full of noble 
 dignity ; that of the saint is calm and impres- 
 sive, as with uplifted arm he expounds the 
 truth. 
 
 5. St Stephen is dragged to his martyrdom . 
 
 6. The death of St Stephen. The treat- 
 ment of both these scenes shows a great 
 advance in dramatic action over the friar s 
 earlier work ; it is never realistic, yet it lacks 
 neither dignity nor vigour, and the counte- 
 nance of the martyred saint breathes the 
 purest faith and resignation. 
 
 Turning to the lower series we find : 
 
 1. Sixtus II confers the diaconate on St 
 Lawre?ice . The saint, clothed in a rich 
 
 dalmatic studded over with little flames — 
 symbolical of his death — and with a tender, 
 boyish face, kneels before the seated figure of 
 the pontiff, crowned with the triple tiara, on 
 whose features we may discover those of 
 Nicholas V. Around stand priests and 
 deacons in beautiful flowing copes and vest- 
 ments, and behind stretches a stately basilica 
 with a double row of Corinthian columns 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 83 
 
 painted perhaps from the church of San 
 Lorenzo fuori le Mure in Rome. 
 
 2. The Pope entrusts the church treasure 
 
 to St Lawrence . There is. a suave dignity 
 
 in the countenance of the pontiff, this time 
 standing erect surrounded by priests and 
 monks, and an eager humility in that of the 
 young deacon kneeling to receive the heavy 
 bag of coin. 
 
 3. St Lawrence distributes alms to the 
 poor . This fresco takes precedence over all 
 the others both in beauty of composition 
 and in tenderness of feeling. The saint, 
 still in his richly embroidered dalmatic, 
 stands before the decorated marble porch of 
 the same basilica, his bag in his hand, and 
 around him are gathered the blind, the halt 
 and the lame, begging the alms of the 
 Church. Fra Angelico painted nothing 
 better than this beautiful group. Every 
 detail of pose and costume has been carefully 
 thought out, and the faces display a remark- 
 able variety of type and expression. There 
 is nothing painful or squalid in the scene. 
 The divine charity of the giver and the 
 
84 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 gratitude of the recipients fling a halo of 
 beauty over the picture, which is full of an 
 exquisite pathos. A delightful note is 
 supplied by some little children in playful 
 contest for the possession of a coin, who 
 deserve to be ranked with the friar’s long 
 series of angelic creations. 
 
 4. The condemnation of St Lawrence . 
 Both in this and in the ensuing scene the 
 influence of ancient Rome is more clearly 
 visible than in any of Fra Angelico’s works. 
 The imperial throne, the marble columns 
 with their Corinthian capitals, and the richly 
 ornamented frieze of the hall are certainly 
 copied from antique models ; and, although 
 the costumes display a quaint jumble of 
 styles, there is much that is strictly Roman 
 both in the figure of the emperor draped in 
 his toga, and in the armour of his soldiers. 
 St Lawrence stands before Decius, his hands 
 bound behind his back in an attitude, not of 
 defiance, but of serene fortitude, while on the 
 ground at his feet lie the instruments of 
 torture with which he is threatened. 
 
 5. His martyrdom . To the left a glimpse 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 85 
 
 through his prison window shows us St 
 Lawrence converting his jailer. In the 
 foreground the nude figure of the martyr is 
 extended on the gridiron, and around him 
 his executioners are busy with the details of 
 their gruesome task. The emperor and his 
 court look on from a beautiful marble 
 terrace adorned with statues. Here too the 
 treatment of the scene of torture, though not 
 lacking in life and vigour, is exceedingly 
 reticent ; and there is none of that dwelling 
 on what is merely horrible, which to the 
 realistic schools has seemed a necessity 
 in art. 
 
 On pilasters between the frescoes Fra 
 Angelico has placed eight admirable figures 
 of great doctors of the Church standing erect 
 in niches beneath graceful Gothic canopies. 
 Very impressive is that of St Bonaventure 
 with his noble countenance and flowing 
 white beard. The four evangelists appear 
 on the vaulted ceiling against a blue sky 
 sprinkled with stars. Finally, to complete 
 the scheme of decoration, there are daintily 
 designed borders and graceful garlands and 
 
86 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 emblematical medallions exceedingly charm- 
 ing in effect, the greater portion of which 
 may probably be attributed to Benozzo 
 Gozzoli, who is known to have assisted his 
 master in this important work. 
 
 Comparing the lovely paintings of the 
 Vatican chapel with those at St Mark’s, we 
 can judge how much the artist gained, even 
 in his old age, from contact with the antique 
 art of pagan Rome. There is a greater 
 breadth of composition, a more accurate 
 drawing, a greater vigour in the modelling of 
 the human figure. The designs show a fresh- 
 ness of conception very remarkable in a man 
 of advanced years. With this there is abso- 
 lutely no falling-off in the deep religious 
 feeling of his art. This seems especially 
 true of the lower series. St Lawrence, we 
 know, was a favourite figure with the friar; 
 he appears again and again in his composi- 
 tions, his boyish face lit up with an extra- 
 ordinary candour and tenderness ; and when 
 the artist was called upon to dedicate a 
 whole scheme of decoration to this theme, he 
 poured out upon it all the treasures of 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 87 
 
 love and devotion that lay hidden in his 
 heart. 
 
 It is curious to learn that the keys of this 
 unique chapel having been lost, it remained 
 shut up for over a century, its very existence 
 forgotten. It has been restored at intervals 
 by order of various popes, and is now thrown 
 open to the public with all the other artistic 
 treasures of the Vatican. Yet even to-day 
 it is frequently overlooked by the hurried 
 tourist. 
 
 It is not easy to determine the pre- 
 cise movements of Fra Angelico during 
 these last years of his life. It is probable 
 that the greater portion of them were spent 
 in Rome. We hear of him however at 
 Florence and at Fiesole in the years 1451 
 and 1452, and it has been suggested that 
 these years mark an interval between the 
 painting of the upper and the lower series 
 of frescoes in the Vatican chapel. The 
 friar may however have merely retired to 
 his native Tuscany for the summer months. 
 
 It was too about this time that the authorities 
 of the Cathedral of Prato invited him to 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 decorate the choir of their sanctuary. This 
 request Fra Angelico refused, doubtless 
 because of the necessity of returning to Rome 
 to complete his undertaking for Nicholas. 
 It must not be assumed that residence in 
 Rome implied any separation from his 
 brethren, for the Order possessed there 
 the great Church and convent of Santa 
 Maria sopra Minerva, as well as the 
 more distant Santa Sabina ; and it was no 
 doubt at the Minerva that the friar resided 
 while carrying out the commands of the pope 
 at the Vatican. There we know that he 
 breathed his last in 1455 at the age of sixty- 
 eight. He was buried in the church 
 to the left of the sanctuary, and Nicholas V, 
 as a token of his high esteem, himself 
 composed the Latin inscription which records 
 on his tomb both the virtues and the talents 
 of the friar-painter. 
 
 We have in our National Gallery no 
 picture by Fra Angelico possessed of the 
 supreme loveliness of the “ Coronation ” in 
 the Galleries of the Louvre ; none the less 
 are the three panels which we happily 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 89 
 
 possess worthy of close study. First and 
 foremost comes a long, low and very 
 delightful canvas crowded with small figures, 
 the gradino of the altar-piece painted for the 
 high altar of the monastic church at Fiesole. 
 It is an exceedingly characteristic example of 
 the painter’s earlier style, closely allied to 
 that of the miniaturist. The scheme of 
 colour against the gold background is clear 
 and vivid, and the canvas contains altogether 
 some two hundred and seventy figures divided 
 into five sections. In the middle of the central 
 panel is the figure of our Lord robed in white, 
 His right hand raised in benediction, His left 
 grasping a white banner bearing a red cross. 
 Above Him at either side are the cherubim and 
 seraphim ; and below and around are angels, 
 some blowing the long slim trumpets which 
 the artist has introduced into so many of his 
 pictures, and others with various musical 
 instruments. In the two compartments on 
 either side stretch long lines of prophets and 
 saints and martyrs standing or kneeling in 
 attitudes of prayer and ecstasy. Each tiny 
 figure is painted with an exquisite care and pre- 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 90 
 
 cision ; each has a halo of burnished gold, 
 and bears in the hand some distinctive 
 emblem or symbol by which the saint may 
 be identified ; in some cases the name is 
 given on a scroll. Taken as a group they 
 show the most astonishing variety of pose 
 and expression. The lower row on the right 
 consists of female saints and martyrs, tender 
 ecstatic little figures endowed with a wonder- 
 ful pathos. The two outside compartments 
 on either hand are filled with Dominican 
 saints and beati, their black and white robes, 
 relieved by the gold rays of the nimbus and 
 here and there by a red book, forming an ad- 
 mirable contrast with the bright pure colours 
 of the robes in the adjoining panels. 
 Humanly speaking the painting of this large 
 gradino must have been a most laborious 
 undertaking ; for Fra Angelico, we know, it 
 was a labour of love, and the whole compo- 
 sition is penetrated with his devotional spirit. 
 
 In the same room at the National 
 Gallery may be seen a small picture of the 
 “ Adoration of the Magi,” almost a replica of 
 that which hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 9i 
 
 Florence. One of the kings, who has offered 
 his gift of gold, which St Joseph is holding, 
 is in the act of kissing the feet of the Holy 
 Child ; the second, with the frankincense, 
 bends the knee as he approaches ; while the 
 third, a younger .man, remains behind with 
 the vessel of myrrh. The ground is strewn 
 with flowers, and the figures are rich in gold 
 and gay apparel, but the attitudes, especially 
 that of the Virgin Mother, are for the most 
 part stiff and conventional. 
 
 Near this hangs the more recently acquired 
 “Annunciation,” which is described as of the 
 “ school ” of Angelico, rather than as actually 
 his work. It is a comparatively large picture, 
 which in simplicity of composition ap- 
 proaches more nearly to the style of the 
 frescoes. It may be said that the necks of 
 both the figures are inordinately long, and the 
 hair of the angel is rolled off his face in a 
 fashion which gives a certain harshness to 
 his countenance ; but the picture is full of 
 a penetrative charm which grows upon the 
 beholder. The Blessed Virgin, very spiritual 
 in her slim youthfulness, bends forward on the 
 
02 
 
 Fra Angelico 
 
 throne where she is seated beneath a simple 
 cloistral arcade, with a strip of prim garden be- 
 yond, and a glimpse of the Appenines. With 
 one graceful hand she holds her blue cloak 
 on her shoulder, with the other she clasps 
 a book. The heavenly messenger, in a pink 
 tunic lined and flecked with gold, and with 
 golden outspread wings, stands before her as 
 though in the instant of alighting ; and 
 the Holy Dove appears at the top of the 
 picture. The Annunciation, as we know, was 
 a favourite subject with the painter, a frequent 
 vision of his hours of meditation, and a study 
 of the picture reveals to us something of the 
 virginal purity of his own soul, of his absolute 
 detachment from the things of this world. 
 
 In Fra Angelico it is impossible to 
 separate the artist from the friar. His 
 pictures were as prayers laid at tjie feet of 
 Christ ; his own Crucifixions as he worked 
 at them drew from his eyes tears of love and 
 compunction. The most exquisite flower of 
 pure Catholicism, he has, like St Francis of 
 Assisi, commanded the reverence, and won 
 
Fra Angelico 
 
 93 
 
 the affection of thousands outside the 
 Church. In public estimation his head has 
 always been crowned with an aureole, and, 
 uncanonized by the Church, he has been 
 universally known by the titles of “ Beato ” 
 and “ Angelico.” He lived to see the first 
 dawn of the Renaissance, that passionate 
 return towards the beautiful pagan ideals of 
 ancient Greece ; but the new spirit never 
 penetrated his monastic cell. He remained 
 to the day of his death the God-fearing son 
 of St Dominic, placing himself and his gifts 
 wholly at the service of the Church that he 
 loved, and the Order to which he had vowed 
 obedience. It is in this double capacity of 
 friar and of artist that he enjoys so irresist- 
 ible a claim on our reverence, and that he 
 has merited the title bestowed on him by 
 Montalembert of “ the greatest of Christian 
 painters.” 
 
, / . .. 
 

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