Editing Fra Angelico (section)

===San Marco, Florence, 1436–1445===
[[File:Fra_Angelico_-_Annunciation.jpg|thumb|''[[Annunciation (Fra Angelico, San Marco)|Annunciation]]'', {{Circa|1440–1445}}]]
In 1436, Fra Angelico was one of a number of the friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly built [[San Marco, Florence|convent or friary of San Marco]] in Florence. This propitious move, placing him at the heart of artistic life of the region, attracted the backing of [[Cosimo de' Medici]]. He was one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the city's governing authority (or "Signoria"), and founder of the dynasty that was set to dominate Florentine politics for much of the Renaissance. Cosimo had a [[Cosimo de' Medici's cell|cell reserved for himself]] at the friary so that he might ''retreat from the world''. 
It was, writes Vasari, at Cosimo's urging that Fra Angelico set about the task of decorating the convent, including the magnificent fresco of the Chapter House, the much reproduced [[Annunciation (Fra Angelico, San Marco)|Annunciation]] at the top of the stairs leading to the cells, the Maesta (or Coronation of the Madonna) with Saints (cell 9), and many other devotional frescoes, smaller in format but of a remarkable luminous quality, depicting aspects of the Life of Christ that adorn the walls of each cell.<ref name=Vasari/>

In 1439 Fra Angelico completed one of his most famous works, the ''[[San Marco Altarpiece]]'' at Florence. It broke new ground. Not unusual had been images of the enthroned Madonna and Child surrounded by saints, the custom was that the setting looked heaven-like, saints and angels hovering as ethereal presences rather than earthly substance. But in the ''[[San Marco Altarpiece]]'', the saints stand squarely within the space, grouped in a natural way as if conversing about their shared witness of the Virgin in glory. This fresh genre, [[Sacred Conversation]]s, was to underlie major commissions of [[Giovanni Bellini]], [[Perugino]] and [[Raphael]].<ref name=Hartt>Frederick Hartt, ''A History of Italian Renaissance Art'', (1970) Thames & Hudson, {{ISBN|0-500-23136-2}}</ref>

[[File:Fra Angelico - San Marco Altarpiece - WGA00509 02.jpg|thumb|left|''[[San Marco Altarpiece]]'']]