ANGELICO, Fra, on-ja! le-co, Florentine painter: b. Vicchio, in the province of Mugello, 1387; d. Rome 1455. Il Beato Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole is the name given to this celebrated painter-friar. In English it runs— the Beatified Friar John the Angelic of Fiesole. His real name was Guido, but on becoming a brother in the Dominican Order at Fiesole he took the name of Giovanni, the name of An gelico by which he is always called in art circles being a surname that came to him later because of the quality of his work. We find him re ferred to as Angelico already in 15th century. The history of his early years is extremely ob scure. We know that he became a Dominican in 1407 and that he shared the vicissitudes of his brethren of the convent, wandering to vari ous cities, notably Cortona, where there are a number of his works. His training as an artist was probably before 1407 and it seems likely to have been in the school of Masolino, and that he began as a miniaturist. Another artist, of the previous generation, who influenced him is Orcagna. It is probable that Fra Angelico returned with the Dominicans to Fiesole in 1418 when they resumed their former residence. He remained there for 18 years. Under the protection of Cosimo de Medici, the brother hood was installed in the monastery of San Marco in Florence in 1436. The decoration of this edifice, including several large frescoes and a large number of small ones in the individual cells, is one of the principal monuments of the Beato Angelico's long and unusually prolific career. We find here the great 'Crucifixion,' possibly unfinished and certainly restored, which is one of tile friar's most impressive works. Here also is the 'Annunciation' which is generally regarded as his most beautiful ver sion of a subject to which he loved to return. No single institution more fully embodies the spirit of mediaeval piety at the dawn of the Renaissance. Pope Eugenius IV, who had pre sided at the installation of the convent, was so impressed with Fra Angelico's achievement that he first offered him the archbishopric of Flor ence, and on his declining it, invited him to Rome to execute frescoes in the Vatican. Vasari
is authority for the story, but his statement lacks authentication though credible enough in view of the humility of Fra Angelico. Fra Angelico was in Rome most of the time from 1445 until his death. In 1447 he worked for some time in the Duomo of Orvieto. He was moreover busy on easel pictures for numerous cities, now scattered to Florence (the very im portant 'Descent from the Cross,' the 'Last Judgment' and the (Coronation of the Virgin' ), Paris, London, Munich, New York, etc., but the great work of his old age was the decoration of the chapel of Nicholas V, that pontiff having succeeded Eugenius while the work was in progress. The frescoes portray eight scenes from the lives of Saint Stephen and Saint Lawrence. While we may note certain changes as we take Fra Angelico's works in chrono logical order, a remarkable uniformity of ideal pervades them throughout. The almost un earthly purity of the artist's spirit, its sweetness —which never falls into weakness—and the ecstatic faith in the divinity of his guidance, combine to sweep away all obstacles of a ma terial nature and produce in us the conviction that his art is sublime. Its modest exterior conceals immense gifts and inexhaustible re sources which renew themselves afresh through= out his life. Attempting neither the emotional nor the technical scope of Giotto, Masaccio or Michelangelo, he so concentrates his spirit on his own problems that his work attains a Christian perfection even as a Greek master reaches a perfection in his sphere. In some respects he was even an innovator, being one of the first to paint the Christ Child as a real infant, and the very first to paint a landscape that can be identified. According to all accounts which have reached us, few men have deserved more nobly the distinction of beatification than Fra Giovanni Angelico. He led a holy and self denying life, shunning all advancement, and was a brother to the poor. He painted with un ceasing diligence, and treated none but sacred subjects. Consult Langton Douglas, Fra (London 1900) ; other treatises are by Supino (Florence 1898; Eng. trans. 1902) ; Sortais (Lille 1905) ; Newnes (London 1906).