Fra Angelico
(Vicchio 1395 - Rome 1455)
He was called Guido di Piero when he left his native Mugello and, reaching Florence, he became a “dipintore” (painter), as is recorded in a 1417 document of the Compagnia di San Niccolò.
About three years later, he entered the Observant Convent of San Domenico in Fiesole; from that time on he was called Fra Giovanni. Before taking his vows, he had already painted the Thebaid (Florence, Uffizi Gallery), a work that attests to an early interest in Masaccio, even more evident in the subsequent triptych for the Church of San Pietro Martire (Florence, San Marco Museum).
In 1433, an important commission arrived from the Linen Drapers’ Guild (Arte dei Linaioli) that wanted a monumental marble tabernacle for their seat, designed by Ghiberti and now housing the wooden panel painting and the doors painted by Angelico (a name that was attributed to him for the first time only in 1469 by Brother Domenico from Corella in a poem).
In those same years he painted, for the church of San Domenico in Fiesole, two large panel paintings with the Annunciation (Madrid, Prado) and the Coronation (Paris, Louvre). The church and convent of San Marco were then passed, in 1436, precisely to the same reformed Dominicans. The monumental complex was being renovated and enlarged at the expense of Cosimo de’ Medici by Michelozzo when Fra Angelico frescoed the cloister, the chapter hall and the dormitories. He also received, directly from Cosimo in 1440, the commission for the altarpiece of the church’s main altar (Florence, San Marco Museum).
Then he was called to Rome in 1445, to the court of Pope Eugene IV; two years later, in 1447, he moved to Orvieto to undertake, with the help of his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, the decoration of the vault of the Chapel of San Brizio in the cathedral; returning to Rome, he frescoed the private chapel of the new pontiff Nicholas V in his Vatican apartment. Upon his return to Florence in 1450, he was appointed prior of San Marco, carrying out, with the faithful Gozzoli, the last important commissions such as the Bosco ai Frati altarpiece for Cosimo de’ Medici and the thirty-five ‘storiette’, the panel paintings for the doors of the Armadio degli Argenti (silver cabinet) for the marble chapel that was built at the behest of Piero de’ Medici at Santissima Annunziata (both, Florence, San Marco Museum).
He died in Rome in 1455 where he had returned in the meantime and was buried in the Dominican Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
(Vicchio 1395 - Rome 1455)
He was called Guido di Piero when he left his native Mugello and, reaching Florence, he became a “dipintore” (painter), as is recorded in a 1417 document of the Compagnia di San Niccolò.
About three years later, he entered the Observant Convent of San Domenico in Fiesole; from that time on he was called Fra Giovanni. Before taking his vows, he had already painted the Thebaid (Florence, Uffizi Gallery), a work that attests to an early interest in Masaccio, even more evident in the subsequent triptych for the Church of San Pietro Martire (Florence, San Marco Museum).
In 1433, an important commission arrived from the Linen Drapers’ Guild (Arte dei Linaioli) that wanted a monumental marble tabernacle for their seat, designed by Ghiberti and now housing the wooden panel painting and the doors painted by Angelico (a name that was attributed to him for the first time only in 1469 by Brother Domenico from Corella in a poem).
In those same years he painted, for the church of San Domenico in Fiesole, two large panel paintings with the Annunciation (Madrid, Prado) and the Coronation (Paris, Louvre). The church and convent of San Marco were then passed, in 1436, precisely to the same reformed Dominicans. The monumental complex was being renovated and enlarged at the expense of Cosimo de’ Medici by Michelozzo when Fra Angelico frescoed the cloister, the chapter hall and the dormitories. He also received, directly from Cosimo in 1440, the commission for the altarpiece of the church’s main altar (Florence, San Marco Museum).
Then he was called to Rome in 1445, to the court of Pope Eugene IV; two years later, in 1447, he moved to Orvieto to undertake, with the help of his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, the decoration of the vault of the Chapel of San Brizio in the cathedral; returning to Rome, he frescoed the private chapel of the new pontiff Nicholas V in his Vatican apartment. Upon his return to Florence in 1450, he was appointed prior of San Marco, carrying out, with the faithful Gozzoli, the last important commissions such as the Bosco ai Frati altarpiece for Cosimo de’ Medici and the thirty-five ‘storiette’, the panel paintings for the doors of the Armadio degli Argenti (silver cabinet) for the marble chapel that was built at the behest of Piero de’ Medici at Santissima Annunziata (both, Florence, San Marco Museum).
He died in Rome in 1455 where he had returned in the meantime and was buried in the Dominican Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.