27 Facts About Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence, then worked in Rome and other cities.

Fra Angelico was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole and Fra Giovanni Angelico.

In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico ; the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".

Fra Angelico was born Guido di Pietro in the hamlet of Rupecanina in the Tuscan area of Mugello near Fiesole towards the end of the 14th century.

The first record of Angelico as a friar dates from 1423, when he is first referred to as Fra Giovanni, following the custom of those entering one of the older religious orders of taking a new name.

Fra Angelico was a member of the local community at Fiesole, not far from Florence, of the Dominican Order, one of the medieval Orders belonging to a category known as mendicant Orders because they generally lived not from the income of estates but from begging or donations.

Fra Angelico, a contraction of frater, is a conventional title for a mendicant friar.

Fra Angelico trained with master Varricho in Milan Fra Angelico had several important charges in the convents he lived in, but this did not limit his art, which very soon became famous.

In 1436, Fra Angelico was one of a number of the friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly built convent or friary of San Marco in Florence.

In 1439 Fra Angelico completed one of his most famous works, the San Marco Altarpiece at Florence.

Vasari claims that at this time Fra Angelico was offered the Archbishopric of Florence by Pope Nicholas V, and that he refused it, recommending another friar for the position.

In 1447 Fra Angelico was in Orvieto with his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, executing works for the Cathedral.

From 1449 until 1452, Fra Angelico returned to his old convent of Fiesole, where he was the Prior.

In 1455, Fra Angelico died while staying at a Dominican convent in Rome, perhaps on an order to work on Pope Nicholas' chapel.

Fra Angelico was buried in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Fra Angelico led the devout and ascetic life of a Dominican friar, and never rose above that rank; he followed the dictates of the order in caring for the poor; he was always good-humored.

Fra Angelico was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should be with Christ.

Fra Angelico was reported to say "He who does Christ's work must stay with Christ always".

Fra Angelico was working at a time when the style of painting was in a state of change.

Fra Angelico's work partner was an older painter, Masolino, of the same generation as Fra Angelico.

The works of Fra Angelico reveal elements that are both conservatively Gothic and progressively Renaissance.

The series of frescoes that Fra Angelico painted for the Dominican friars at San Marcos realise the advancements made by Masaccio and carry them further.

Away from the constraints of wealthy clients and the limitations of panel painting, Fra Angelico was able to express his deep reverence for his God and his knowledge and love of humanity.

Vasari relates that Cosimo de' Medici seeing these works, inspired Fra Angelico to create a large Crucifixion scene with many saints for the Chapter House.

Subsequently, Fra Angelico demonstrated an understanding of linear perspective particularly in his Annunciation paintings set inside the sort of arcades that Michelozzo and Brunelleschi created at San' Marco's and the square in front of it.

Yet Fra Angelico has succeeded in creating designs which continue to reveal his own preoccupation with humanity, with humility and with piety.

Worldwide press coverage reported in November 2006 that two missing masterpieces by Fra Angelico had turned up, having hung in the spare room of the late Jean Preston, in her terrace house in Oxford, England.