FIESOLE, FRA GIOVANNI DA, one of the most eminent regenerators of Italian art, also known by the title of II beato Angelico, was b. at :Kugello in 1387. In 1407, he entered the Dominican order, and, together with his brother, consecrated his artistic abilities exclusively to sacred aims, illustrating various works of devotion with beautiful miniature designs. These early artistic efforts are remarkable for their rich effects of coloring, gorgeous illumination, and exquisite elaboration of the most minute ornamental details. Having achieved a high reputation as fresco-painter by some noble compositions with which he endowed his own and other convents, he was commissioned by Cosmo de' Medici, with the decoration of the church of Santa Annunziata and the convent San Marco. Each cell of the convent was adorned with a fine fresco of large dimensions, and amidst other paintings, one can still dis tinguish F.'s " Annunciation." The fame of this work induced pope Nicholas V. to summon him to Rome, and intrust him with the execution of a series of illustra tions taken from the life of St. Laurence, destined to embellish the private chapel
of St. Laurence in the Vatican. See Giangiacomo Romano, Le Pitture della Cappello di Nicol() V., etc., (Rome, 1810). So rigid a disciplinarian was F., that no private or public work was ever undertaken without the formal consent of his superiors being obtained, and to them all pecuniary remuneration was transferred. The archbishop ric of Florence, spontaneously offered him by the was humbly declined. He died in Rome in 1454. The gallery of Florence possesses several pictures of F., still undlinned in brilliancy of coloring. One of these, the "Birth of John the Bap tist," is a conception full of simple and winning grace. Some of the largest easel compositions of this artist at present adorn the gallery of the Louvre; among those in the antechamber are the " Coronation of the Virgin," and the "Miracles of St. Domin ico." One supreme aim pervades all the creations of F.—that of arousing lofty devo tional feeling through the contemplation of the beautiful in art.