Fra Angelico | |
|---|---|
 Posthumous portrait from The Preaching of the Antichrist by Luca Signorelli (c. 1501) in Orvieto Cathedral, Italy | |
| Born | Guido di Pietro c. 1395 |
| Died | 18 February 1455 (aged about 59) |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Known for | Painting, Fresco |
| Notable work | Annunciation of Cortona Fiesole Altarpiece San Marco Altarpiece Deposition of Christ Niccoline Chapel |
| Movement | Early Renaissance |
| Patron(s) | Cosimo de' Medici Pope Eugene IV Pope Nicholas V |
| Signature | |
 | |
John of Fiesole | |
|---|---|
| Venerated in | Catholic Church (Dominican Order) |
| Beatified | 3 October 1982, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II |
| Major shrine | Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, Italy |
| Feast | 18 February |
Fra Angelico, O.P. (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395[1] – 18 February 1455) was a Dominican friar and Italian Renaissance painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent".[2] He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence,[3] then worked in Rome and other cities. All his known work is of religious subjects.
He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Friar John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One);[4] the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".
In 1982, Pope John Paul II beatified him[5] in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the town where he had taken his vows as a Dominican friar,[6] and would have been used by contemporaries to distinguish him from others with the same forename, Giovanni. He is commemorated by the current Roman Martyrology on 18 February,[7] the date of his death in 1455. There the Latin text reads Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed John of Fiesole, surnamed 'the Angelic'".
Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."[2]
- ^ "Metropolitan Museum of Art".
- ^ a b Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists. Penguin Classics, 1965.
- ^ Norwich, John Julius (1990). Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Arts. USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 16. ISBN 978-0-19-869137-2.
- ^ Andrea del Sarto, Raphael and Michelangelo were all called "Beato" by their contemporaries because their skills were seen as a special gift from God
- ^ Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret (1999). John Paul II's Book of Saints. Our Sunday Visitor. p. 156. ISBN 0-87973-934-7.
- ^ Rossetti 1911, p. 6.
- ^ Martyrologium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Ioannis Pauli Pp. II promulgatum, editio [typica] altera, Typis Vaticanis, A.D. MMIV (2004), p. 155 ISBN 88-209-7210-7