Editing Fra Angelico (section)

==Evaluation==
[[File:Fra_Angelico_—_The_Last_Judgment.jpg|thumb|388px|right|[[San Marco, Florence]],''[[The Last Judgment (Angelico)|The Day of Judgement]]'', upper panel of an altarpiece. It shows the precision, detail and colour required in a commissioned work.]]
[[File:Fra Angelico - Thebaid.jpg|thumb|388x388px|A [[Thebaide]], showing the activities in the lives of the saints, 1420]]

===Background===
Fra Angelico was working at a time when the style of painting was in a state of flux. This transformation had begun a century earlier with the works of [[Giotto]] and several of his contemporaries, notably [[Giusto de' Menabuoi]]. Both had created their major works in [[Padua, Italy|Padua]], though Giotto had been trained in [[Florence]] by the great Gothic artist, [[Cimabue]]. He had painted a fresco cycle of [[Francis of Assisi|St Francis]] in the Bardi Chapel in the [[Basilica di Santa Croce]]. Giotto had many enthusiastic followers, imitating his style in [[fresco]]. Some of them, notably the [[Pietro Lorenzetti|Lorenzetti]], achieved great success.<ref name=Hartt/>

===Patronage===

If not a monastic establishment, the [[Patronage|patron]] was most usually, as part of a church's endowment, a family with wealth. To maximally advertise this (wealth) favoured subjects where religious devotion would be most focused, an [[altarpiece]] for instance. The wealthier the benefactor, the more the style would seem a throwback, compared with a freer and more nuanced style then in vogue. Underpinning this was that a commissioned painting said something about its sponsor: the more [[gold leaf]], the more prestige accrued. Other precious materials in the paint-box were [[lapis lazuli]] and [[vermilion]]. Paints from these colours lent themselves poorly to a tonal treatment. The azure blue made of powdered lapis lazuli had to be applied flat. As with gold leaf, it was left to the depth and brilliance of colour to announce the patron's importance. This, however, constrained the overall style to that of an earlier generation. Thus, the impression left by altarpieces was more conservative than that achieved by frescoes. These, in contrast, were frequently of almost life-sized figures. To gain effect, they could capitalise on an up-to-date stage-set quality rather than having to fall back upon a lavish, but dated, display.<ref>Michael Baxandall, ''Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy'',(1974) Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-881329-5}}</ref>

===Contemporaries===
Fra Angelico was the contemporary of [[Gentile da Fabriano]]. Gentile's altarpiece of the ''[[Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano)|Adoration of the Magi]]'', 1423, in the [[Uffizi]] is regarded as one of the greatest works of the style known as [[International Gothic]]. At the time it was painted, another young artist, known as [[Masaccio]], was working on the frescoes for the [[Brancacci Chapel]] at the church of the Carmine. Masaccio had fully grasped the implications of the art of [[Giotto]]. Few painters in Florence saw his sturdy, lifelike and emotional figures and were not affected by them. His work partner was an older painter, [[Masolino]], of the same generation as Fra Angelico. Masaccio died at 27, leaving the work unfinished.<ref name=Hartt/>

===Altarpieces===
The works of Fra Angelico reveal elements that are both conservatively [[Gothic art|Gothic]] and progressively [[Renaissance]]. In the altarpiece of the [[Coronation of the Virgin]], painted for the Florentine church of [[Santa Maria Novella]], are all the elements that a very expensive altarpiece of the 14th century was expected to provide; a precisely tooled [[gold ground]], much azure, and much vermilion. The workmanship of the gilded haloes and gold-edged robes is exquisite and all very Gothic. What makes this a Renaissance painting, as against Gentile da Fabriano's masterpiece, is the solidity, three-dimensionality and naturalism of the figures and the realistic way in which their garments hang or drape around them. Even though it is clouds these figures stand upon, and not the earth, they do so with weight.<ref name=Hartt/>

[[File:Fra Angelico 042 adjusted.jpg|220px|thumb|left|''The [[Transfiguration of Jesus|Transfiguration]]'' shows the directness, simplicity and restrained palette typical of these frescoes.  Located in a monk's cell at the Convent San' Marco, its apparent purpose is to encourage private devotion.]]

===Frescoes===
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. The meditational frescoes in the cells of the convent have a quieting quality about them. They are humble works in simple colours. There is more mauvish pink than there is red, and the brilliant and expensive blue is almost totally lacking. In its place is dull green and the black and white of Dominican robes. There is nothing lavish, nothing to distract from the spiritual experiences of the humble people who are depicted within the frescoes. Each one has the effect of bringing an incident of the life of Christ into the presence of the viewer. They are like windows into a parallel world. These frescoes remain a powerful witness to the piety of the man who created them.<ref name=Hartt/>
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]]. As with the other frescoes, the wealthy patronage did not influence the Friar's artistic expression with displays of wealth.<ref name=Vasari/>

Masaccio ventured into perspective with his creation of a realistically painted niche at [[Santa Maria Novella]]. Subsequently, Fra Angelico demonstrated an understanding of [[linear perspective]] particularly in his Annunciation paintings set inside the sort of arcades that [[Michelozzo]] and [[Filippo Brunelleschi|Brunelleschi]] created at San' Marco's and the square in front of it.<ref name=Hartt/>

===Lives of the Saints===
[[File:Angelico, niccolina 12.jpg|250px|thumb|''[[Saint Lawrence]] distributing alms'' 1447–1450, fresco, Chapel of Nicholas V, [[Vatican City]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zuffi |first=Stefano |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm53441832 |title=The Renaissance: 1401-1610: the splendor of European art |last2=Hyams |first2=Jay |last3=Seppi |first3=Giorgio |last4=Pauli |first4=Tatjana |last5=Scardoni |first5=Sergio |date=2003 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |isbn=978-0-7607-4200-6 |location=New York |oclc=ocm53441832}}</ref> This painting incorporates the expensive pigments, gold leaf and elaborate design typical of Vatican commissions.]]

When Fra Angelico and his assistants went to the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] to decorate the chapel of Pope Nicholas, the artist was again confronted with the need to please the very wealthiest of clients. In consequence, walking into the small chapel is like stepping into a jewel box. The walls are decked with the brilliance of colour and gold that one sees in the most lavish creations of the Gothic painter [[Simone Martini]] at the Lower Church of St Francis of Assisi, a hundred years earlier. Yet Fra Angelico has succeeded in creating designs which continue to reveal his own preoccupation with humanity, with humility and with piety. The figures, in their lavish gilded robes, have the sweetness and gentleness for which his works are famous. According to Vasari:
{{blockquote|In their bearing and expression, the saints painted by Fra Angelico come nearer to the truth than the figures done by any other artist.<ref name=Vasari/>}}

It is probable that much of the actual painting was done by his assistants to his design. Both Benozzo Gozzoli and Gentile da Fabriano were highly accomplished painters. Benozzo took his art further towards the fully developed Renaissance style with his expressive and lifelike portraits in his masterpiece depicting the [[Magi Chapel#Gozzoli's Journey of the Magi|Journey of the Magi]], painted in the [[Medici]]'s private chapel at their [[palazzo]].<ref>Paolo Morachiello, ''Fra Angelico: The San Marco Frescoes''. Thames and Hudson, 1990. {{ISBN|0-500-23729-8}}</ref>

[[File:Blessing Redeemer (1423); Fra Angelico1.jpg|thumb|left|''Blessing Redeemer'' (1423)]]

===Artistic legacy===
Through Fra Angelico's pupil Benozzo Gozzoli's careful portraiture and technical expertise in the art of fresco we see a link to [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]], who in turn painted extensive schemes for the wealthy patrons of Florence, and through Ghirlandaio to his pupil [[Michelangelo]] and the High Renaissance.

Apart from the lineal connection, superficially there may seem little to link the humble priest with his sweetly pretty [[Virgin Mary|Madonnas]] and timeless [[Crucifixion of Christ|Crucifixions]] to the dynamic expressions of Michelangelo's larger-than-life creations. But both these artists received their most important commissions from the wealthiest and most powerful of all patrons, the Vatican.

When Michelangelo took up the Sistine Chapel commission, he was working within a space that had already been extensively decorated by other artists. Around the walls the ''Life of Christ'' and ''Life of Moses'' were depicted by a range of artists including his teacher [[Domenico Ghirlandaio|Ghirlandaio]], [[Raphael]]'s teacher [[Perugino]] and [[Botticelli]]. They were works of large scale and exactly the sort of lavish treatment to be expected in a Vatican commission, vying with each other in the complexity of design, number of figures, elaboration of detail and skilful use of gold leaf. Above these works stood a row of painted Popes in brilliant brocades and gold tiaras. None of these splendours have any place in the work which Michelangelo created. Michelangelo, when asked by [[Pope Julius II]] to ornament the robes of the Apostles in the usual way, responded that they were very poor men.<ref name=Hartt/>

Within the cells of San'Marco, Fra Angelico had demonstrated that painterly skill and the artist's personal interpretation were sufficient to create memorable works of art, without the expensive trappings of blue and gold. In the use of the unadorned fresco technique, the clear bright pastel colours, the careful arrangement of a few significant figures and the skillful use of expression, motion and gesture, Michelangelo showed himself to be the artistic descendant of Fra Angelico. Frederick Hartt describes Fra Angelico as "prophetic of the mysticism" of painters such as [[Rembrandt]], [[El Greco]] and [[Zurbarán]].<ref name=Hartt/>