fra angelico - masterpieces in colour

8/3/2019 Fra Angelico - Masterpieces in Colour

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MASTERPIECESIN COLOUREDITED BY - -T. LEMAN HARE

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FRA ANGELICO


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In the Same SeriesArtist.VELAZQUEZ.

REYNOLDS.TURNER.ROMNEY.GREUZE.BOTTICELLI.ROSSETTI.BELLINI.FRA ANGELICO.REMBRANDT.LEIGHTON*RAPHAEL.HOLMAN HUNT.TITIANMILLAIS.CARLO DOLCI.GAINSBOROUGH.TINTORETTO.LUINI.FRANZ HALS.VAN DYCK.LEONARDO DA VINCI.RUBENS.WHISTLER.HOLBEIN.BURNE-JONES.VIGEE LE BRUN.J. F. MILLET.

Author.S. L. Bensusan.S. L. Bensusan.C. Lewis Hind.C. Lewis Hind.Alys Eyre Macklin.Henry B. Binns.Lucien Pissarro.George Hay.James Mason.Josef Israels.A. Lys Baldry.Paul G. Konody.Mary E. Coleridge.S. L. Bensusan.A. Lys Baldry.George Hay.Max Rothschild.S. L. Bensusan.James Mason.Edgcumbe Staley.Percy M. Turner.M. W. BROCKWELL.S. L. Bensusan.T. Martin Wood.S. L. Bensusan.A. Lys Baldry.C. HALDANE MacFaLL.Percy M. Turner.

In PreparationCHARDIN.MEMLINC.ALBERT DURER.FRAGONARD.CONSTABLE.RAEBURN.BOUCHER.WATTEAU.MURILLO.JOHNS. SARGENT,

Paul G. Konody.W. H. James Wealk.Herbert Furst.C. Haldane MacFall,C. Lewis Hind.James L. Caw.C. Haldane MacFall.C. Lewis Hind.S. L. Bensusan.

R.A. T. Martin Wood.And Others.


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PLATE I.A GROUP OF ANGELS. (Frontispiece)This panel from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence is an example

of Fra Angelico's most popular work. It is painted in his earliestmanner and the figures are stiff and conventional, but the simpli-city and beauty that can be found in the group connect it withthe paintings of the primitives who were in a sense Angelico'sforebears.


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FraANGELICOBY JAMES MASONILLUSTKATED WITH EIGHTREPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACKNEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.


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THE LIBRARYBRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITYPROVO, UTAH


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CONTENTSPage

I. Introduction nII. The Painter's Early Days .... 21

III. In San Marco 45IV. Later Years 58V. A Retrospect 7*VI. Conclusion 78

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPlateI. A Group Of Angels . . . Frontispiece

la the Uffizi Gallery, FlorencePage

II. A Figure of Christ 14In the San Marco Convent, Florence

III. Two Angels with Trumpets ... 24In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

IV. Christ as a Pilgrim met by Two Domi-nicans 34

In. the San Marco Convent, Florence

V. The Coronation of the Virgin... 40In the San Marco Convent, Florence

VI. Detail from the Coronation of the Virgin 50In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

VII. The Infant Christ 60In the San Marco Convent, Florence

VIII. St. Peter the Martyr 70In the San Marco Convent, Florence

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IINTRODUCTION

ROUND the peaceful life and delicately. imaginative work of Guido da Vicchio,

the Florentine artist v/ho is known to theworld at large as Fra Angelico, critics andlaymen continue to wage a fierce contro-

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12 FRA ANGELICOversy. While few are heard to deny themerit of the artist's exquisite achievement, itis hard to find, even among those who are in-terested in early Florentine religion and art,men who can agree about Fra Angelico'spositions between the monastery and thestudio. "He was a man with a beautifulmind," says one ; " a light of the Church, asaint by temperament, and he chanced to bea painter." "You are entirely wrong," saysthe supporter of the opposing theory; "hewas a Heaven-sent artist who chanced totake the vows."

So the schools of art and theology ragefuriously together, after the fashion of thetwo men who approached a statue fromopposite sides and quarrelled because onesaid that the shield carried by the bronzefigure was made of gold, and the other saidit was made of silver. Incensed by each


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PLATE II.A FIGURE OF CHRISTDetail from San Marco's Convent in Florence. This striking

example of the master's mature art reveals in most favourablelight his exquisite conception of Christ. Although this is no morethan part of a picture, it has been reproduced here in order thatthe details of the handling may be appreciated.


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FRA ANGELICO 15other's obstinacy they drew swords andfought until they both fell helpless to theground, only to be assured by a thirdtraveller, who chanced to pass by, that theshield had gold on one side and silver onthe other.

Standing well apart from the enthusiastsof both sides, the average man sees that FraAngelico was an artist of remarkable attain-ments and at the same time a devout, God-fearing friar, who seems to have deserveda great part at least of the praise he receivedfrom the honeyed pen of Giorgio Vasari.Naturally enough the modern artist findsin Fra Angelico, or "Beato" Angelico ashe is sometimes called, one of the mostinteresting painters of the fifteenth century,and he does not bother about the fact thathis hero chanced to be a Dominican brother.Very devout Catholics, on the other hand,


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16 FRA ANGELICOwill approach Fra Angelico's work on theliterary side, and will be profoundly consciousof the fact that he was the first great artistof Italy who, realising the maternity of theMadonna, represented her as a mother fullof human affection, and the Holy Child asa beautiful baby boy. It is the painter'sabiding claim to our regard that he broughtlife to his walls and panels, that they presentthe living, palpitating sentiment of men andwomen and children, that he painted for usthe flowers that blossomed round him andthe countryside through which he wanderedin his hours of ease. The technical achieve-ment, the gradual but steady improvementin dealing with composition and massesof colour, the extraordinary change fromthe stiff early figures to the supple ones ofthe later years, the splendid growth of theartistic sense, from all these things the


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FRA ANGELICO 17devotee turns aside. He is not unconsciousof the change, for the results achieved bythe painter account for the spectator'sriper and fuller appreciation, but he cannotanalyse it.l Of far more moment to him isthe thought that all Fra Angelico's life andart were given to the service of the Church,that he laboured without ceasing to presentthe Gospel stories in the most attractiveform, despising the material rewards thatawaited such achievements as his. Ease, Xluxury and the praise of the world at largethe Dominican dismissed with fine indiffer-ence, believing that his reward would comewhen his task was ended, and the work ofhis hands should praise him in the gates."Here," his orthodox latter-day admirerssay, "is the man of noble convictions andpure life, who stood for all that was bestin religion. As he chanced to have theB


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18 FRA ANGELICOgifts of a painter, he used those gifts todevelop his mission. Painting with himwas no more than a means to an end,and that end was the glorification of God."The dispute must needs be endless ; forwe cannot see through the four centuriesthat separate us from the artist, and everyman takes from a picture some echo ofwhat he brought to it.

In sober truth the matter is of far lessimportance than the makers of controversyimagine. It should suffice both parties toagree that Fra Angelico was a great painterand a great man, that his association withthe Church afforded him the opportunity ofleaving behind him work that has a spiritualas well as artistic quality. (His altar-piecesand frescoes seem to breathe the sereneatmosphere of an age of faith ; they tell ofa quiet retired life amid surroundings that


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FRA ANGELICO 19remain unrivalled to-day, even though ourhorizon is widened and we know the NewWorld as well as the Old.

There are examples of the painter's artin the National Gallery and in the Louvre,in Rome and in Perugia ; but Florence holdsby far the greatest number. In Florencewe find the series painted to decorate the" Silver Press " of the Annunziata, and morethan a dozen other works of importance.The Uffizi guards the famous "Madonnadei Linajuoli " and the " Coronation of theVirgin" from Santa Maria Nuova. TheConvent of San Marco, to which the Brother-hood of San Dominico went in 1346 fromFiesole, holds the famous frescoes in cloister,chapter-house, and cells, and offers an illu-minating guide to the painter's ideals andintentions, in work that is the ripe productof middle age. So it is to Florence that one


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20 FRA ANGELICOmust go to study the painter, though thereare one or two works from his hands inFiesole across the valley, while the collectionin Perugia is not to be overlooked, and Romeholds some of the best work of the artist'shand, painted in the closing years. Forall the surging waves of tourists that breakupon Florence, month in, month out, fillingstreets and galleries with discordant noises,and giving them an air of unrest strangelyout of keeping with their traditional aspect,the city preserves sufficient of its old-timecharacter to enable the student to study FraAngelico's pictures in an atmosphere thatwould not have been altogether repugnantto the artist himself. Save in seasons whenthe city is full to overflowing the Conventof San Marco receives few visitors, while inthe Academy and at the Uffizi there are somany expressions of a more flamboyant art


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FRA ANGELICO 21that there is seldom any lack of space roundthe panels Angelico painted.

There are some days when San Marcois altogether free from visitors, and then thefrescoed cells, through which the great whiteglare of the day steals softly and subdued,seem to be waiting for the devotees whowill return no more, and one looks anxiouslyto cloisters, and garden and chapter-housefor some signs of the life that rose so farabove the varied emptiness of our own.

IITHE PAINTER'S EARLY DAYS

When Guido da Vicchio was born inthe little fortified town from which he takeshis name, the town that looks out uponthe Apennines on the North and West, andtowards Monte Giovo on the South, the


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22 FRA ANGELICOMedici family was just beginning to raise itshead in Florence. Salvestro di Medici hadoriginated the " Tumult of the Ciompi " ; theera of democratic government in the citywas drawing to a close. Beyond the boun-daries of Florence the various states intowhich Italy was divided were quarrellingviolently among themselves. The throneof St. Peter was rent by schism, Popeand anti-Pope were striving one against theother in fashion that was amazing andcalculated to bring the Papal power intopermanent disrepute. It was a period ofuncertainty and unrest, prolific in saintsand sinners, voluptuaries and ascetics. Nostudent of history will need to be remindedthat it is to periods such as this that theworld has learned to look for its remarkablemen.

Doubtless some echo of the surrounding


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PLATE III.TWO ANGELS WITH TRUMPETSThese panels from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence are very

popular examples of the master's early work, and although theydo not compare favourably with his later efforts, they have achievedan extraordinary measure of popularity in Italy, and are to beseen on picture postcards in every Italian city from Genoa toNaples. (See p. 32.)


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FRA ANGELICO 25strife penetrated beyond the walls of Vicchiowhen Guido was a little boy, for he livedin a fortified town built for purposes ofwar. It is not unreasonable to supposethat he may have seen enough of the stressand strife peculiar to the age to have turnedhis thoughts to other things. If a lad, bornwith a peaceable and affectionate disposi-tion, be brought into contact with violenceat an early age, his peaceful tendencies willbe strengthened, he will avoid all sourcesand scenes of strife. We know nothing ofthe painter's boyhood, but, looking roundat the conditions prevailing in Florence, itseems more than likely that the years werenot quite restful.

In the absence of authentic informationone may do no more than suggest that,when the lad was newly in his teens, heserved in the studio of some local painter


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26 FRA ANGELICOand discovered his own talent Attemptshave been made to give the teacher a nameand a history, but these efforts, for all thatthey are interesting, lack authenticity. Faraway in Florence the first faint light of theRevival of Learning was shining upon themore intelligent partisans of all the jarringfactions. The claims of the religious lifewere being put forward with extraordinaryfervour and ability by a great teacher andpreacher, John the Dominican, who appearsto have reformed the somewhat lax rules ofhis order. We are told that he travelled onfoot from town to town after the fashion ofhis time, calling upon sinners to repent, andsummoning to join the brotherhood all thosewho regarded life as a dangerous and un-certain road to a greater and nobler future.Clerics looked askance at the signs of thetimes, for although art and literature were


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FRA ANGELICO 27coming into favour, although Florence wasbecoming the centre of a great humanistmovement, the change was associated witha recrudescence of pagan luxury and vicesthat boded ill for the maintenance of morallaw.

Perhaps John the Dominican preachedin Vicchio, perhaps Guido and his youngerbrother Benedetto heard him elsewhere, butwherever the message was delivered itwent home, for it is recorded that in theyear 1407, when Fra Angelico would havebeen just twenty years old, he and Bene-detto travelled to the Dominican Conventon the hillside at Fiesole and applied foradmission to the order. The brothers werewelcomedjmd^seat to serve their novitiateftt Cortona, where some of Fra Angelico'searliest known workjwas painted. Theyreturned to Fiesole in the following year,


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28 FRA ANGELICObut the Dominican establishment there wassoon broken up because the Florentines hadacknowledged Alexander V. as Pope, andthe Dominican Brotherhood supported hisopponent, Gregory XL Foligno and Cortonawere visited in turn. In the former city theChurch of the Dominicans remains to-dayand so the brethren sought peace beyondFiesole, until in 1418 the Council of Constancehealed the wounds of Mother Church. ThenPope Martin V. came to live in Florence,where John XXIII. paid him obeisance, andthe Dominican friars returned to their hill-side home beyond the city, that was then,according to the historian Bisticci, "in amost blissful state, abounding in excellentmen in every faculty, and full of admirablecitizens."

And now Fra Angelico, as he must becalled in future, settled down to his first


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FRA ANGELICO 29important work. He had learned as muchas his associates could teach him, and hadgathered sufficient strength of purpose, in-telligence and judgment, to enable him todeal with the problems of his art as hethought best. It may hft said fhaf FraAngglico built the bridge by which mediaevalart travelled into the country of the Renais-sance. Indeed, he did more than this, for

IT4"having btnft^feJ^idge, he boldly passed overiMrHJie last years of his life. We can seein his work the unmistakable marks of theyears of his labour. He started out equippedwith the heavy burden of all the conventionsof medisevalism. Against that drawback hecould set independence of thought, and agoodly measure of that Florentine restless-ness that led men to express themselvesin every art-form known to the world. NoFlorentine artist of the Quattrocento held


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30 FRA ANGELICOthat painting was enough if he could addsculpture to it, or that sculpture would serveif architecture could be added to that. Hadthere been any other form of art-expressionto their hands, the Florentines would haveused it, because they were as men who seekto speak in many languages. This restless-ness, this prodigality of effort, was to findits final expression in Leonardo da Vinci,who entered the world as the Dominicanfriar was leaving it.

In the early days Fra Angelico must havebeen a miniaturist. Vasari speaks of himas being pre-eminent as painter, miniaturist,and religious man, and the painting of minia-tures cramped the painter's style in fashionthat_detocts3_frQm_.the merits of the earlierpictures, but of course Fra Angelico is byno means the only artist to whom miniaturepainting has been a pitfall


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FRA ANGELICO 31Professor Langton Douglas has pointed

out, in his admirable and exhaustive workon Fra Angelico, that the artist was pro-foundly influenced by the great painters andarchitects of his time, and has even usedthis undisputed fact as an aid to ascertainthe approximate date of certain pictures.We can hardly wonder that the influenceshould be felt by a sensitive artist, who re-sponded readily to outside forces, when weconsider the quality of the work that sculp-ture and architecture were giving to theworld in those early days of the Quattro-cento. Men of genius dominated every pathin life and Florence held far more than afair share of them.

Among the works belonging to the yearsbefore Fra Angelico went to San j/Tarco^ajidjainted-_the frescoes that stand for hismiddle period at its best, are the Altar-piece


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32 FRA ANGELICOat Cortona, "The Annunciation " and^JTheLast Judgment," in the Academy of Flor-ence, and the famous "Madonna da Lina-juoli," with its twelve angels playing diversmusical instruments on the frame roundthe central panel. These angels have madethe Madonna of the Flax-workers the bestknown of all the painter's works. So longthe delight of the public eye they are veryharshly criticised to-day, and not withoutreason, for doubtless they are flat and stiffproductions enough. But they have a cer-tain naive beauty of their own, and be-cause they have done more than work offar greater merit to spread the fame of FraAngelico, because they have been the sourceof great delight to countless people despisedand rejected of art critics, it has seemedreasonable to present some of them in thislittle volume, side by side with those more


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PLATE IV.CHRIST AS A PILGRIM METBY TWO DOMINICANSThis is a fresco in the cloister of San Marco at Florence. It

will be seen that Christ holds a pilgrim's staff which cuts thepicture in half, and the right hand of the foremost Dominicanand the left hand of Christ, extended across the staff, form across.


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FRA ANGELICO 35important works of the master to whichso many artists of the Renaissance are in-debted. We may rest assured that to thepainter the angels were very real angelsindeed, the best that his art and devotioncould express.

Other important works of this first period,which may bejaken to range from 1407 toI43S> are the altar-pieces known as theMadonna of Cortona, the Madonna ofPerugia, and the Madonna of the Annelena,the last-named being in the Academy atFlorence. Critics and artists can divide thepainters life into four or more divisionsexpressed to them by changes in his style;but a simpler division suffices here.

Looking at Fra Angelico with eyes thatthe nineteenth century has trained, we speakof tfatar early work afr^of less importancethan what jbllowed, but in so doing it is


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36 FRA ANGELICOquite easy to speak or write as several ofhis critics have done in very unreasonablefashion. Certainly the artistewhojnthe lastyears of his life painted the picture of St.Lorenzo distributing alms, and the scenesin the life of SfcStephen, has-4rave41edver^far from the painter of the "LastJudgment" that may be seen in Florencebut, even in the early days of Cortona, FraAngelico was a modern of the moderns.He was a man who worked and thought farin^Hxrgjiirg^f hfe times, who had the wideoutlook that we have learned to associatewith all the Florentine artists of the Quat-trocento, and he left the boundaries of thepainter's art far wider than he found them.Doubtless many of his contemporaries foundhis work daring and even immoral in so faras it departed f thetraditions that hadsatisfied his predecessors^ He had an in-


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FRA ANGELICO 37dividuality that expressed itself in fashionunmistakable before he was thirty yearsof age, and developed steadily down to thelast year of his life. Divorced by his callingfrom the cares and joys of other men, heresponded with delight to the larger andmore general aspects of life. Fra Angelicohad a keen and eager eye for natural beautyjhe seems to have gone to the countrysidefor all the inspiration that remained to seekwhen the sacred writings were laid aside.The maternal aspect with which he endowedt&e Madontta,"wHoThad^ hitherto been as stiffand formless as though carved out of wood,testifies to the artist's recognition of mater-nity as he saw it among the simplejpeasantshis order served. He restored humanity toMother and Child. The child-like Christ,no longer a doll but a real bambino, tellsus how deeply the painter entered into the


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38 FRA ANGELICOspirit of a life that the rules of his orderforbade him to share. Just as some womenwho do not marry seem to keep for theworld at large the measure of loving sym-pathy that would have been concentratedupon their children; so this painter monk,who had paid his vows to poverty, chastity,and obedience, could express upon his canvasthe affection and the sentiment that wouldhave been bestowed under other circum-stances upon a chosen helpmate. Lackingthe joys of healthy domesticity he turned toNature with a loving eye and an intelligencethat cannot be over-estimated and, if heknew hours wherein, manlike, he mournedfor the life forbidden, the consolation wasat hand. The Earth Mother consoled him.In his earliest canvases he expresses hisl^Tofjflowers, tfcJoy^o^tfi^ for thesights that make the earliest appeal to our


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PLATE V.THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGINThis is a detail of a famous picture in San Marco. It is a

fresco in a cell of the South Corridor. Christ is seen crowningthe Virgin, the clouds surrounding them are rainbow tinted, andbelow the rainbow six saints are ranged in a semi-circle.


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FRA ANGELICO 41sense of beauty. His angels are ^et__inflowering fields, they carry blossoms thatbloom in the fields beyond Cortona, and uponthe hillside of Fiesole. Clearly the paintersaw Paradise around him. Roses and pinksseem to be his favourite flowersT he paintsthem with a loving care, knowing themin bud and in full leaf and, just as he wentto Nature for the decorative side of his art,so in a way he may be said to have goneto Nature in her brightest and most joyousmoods for his colours. His palette seemsto have borrowed its glory from the rain-bowthe gold, the green, the blue, and thered are surely as bright and clear in hispictures as they are in the great and gleam-ing arch that Easterns call in their ownpicturesque fashion "The Bride of the Rain."

In all his work Fra Angelico showedhimself an innovator, a man who, in thinking


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42 FRA ANGELICOfor himself, would not allow his own clearvision to be obscured by the conventionsthat bound men of smaller mentality andless significant achievement. At the sametime he was very observant of the progressof his peers, particularly in architecture,and students of this branch of art cannotfail to notice his response to the develop-ments brought about by Michelozzo andBrunelleschi. Even in the first period ofhis art he would have seemed a daringinnovator to his contemporaries for, allunconsciously he was taking his share inshaping the great Renaissance movementthat left so many timid souls outside theradius of its illumination.

In the early days he_approached thehuman body with some diffidence, andthough a greater courage in~thisT regard isthe keynote of Renaissance painting, the


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FRA ANGELICO 43earlier timidity is hardly to be wonderedat when we consider the attitude of thereligious houses towards humanity in itsphysical aspect, and how necessary it wasto avoid anything approaching sensuousimagery throughout that anxious period oftransition. As he grew older and moreconfident of his powers, ^gTAn^ellco seemsto have freed himself from some of therestrictions that beset an artist who isalsojijreligious.^ He, too, learned to glorifythe human form.

His love for Nature remained constantthroughout all the years of his life ; he wassufficiently daring to introduce real land-scape into his pictures, and by so doing,to become one of the fathers of landscapepainting. His angels have a setting in theItaly he knew best, the flowers that strewtheir paths are those he may have gathered


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44 FRA ANGELICOin the convent garden; for even his vividand exalted imagination could not createaught more beautiful than those that grewso freely and wild by the wayside, or weretended by his brethren in San Marco.We find throughout the pictures a sugges-ticm that the life of the artist was a sereneand tranquil one that, while he was activelyconcerned with things of art throughoutthe district he knew best, he was shelteredby the house of the brotherhood from thetumult and turmoil that beset Fiesole,Cortona, and Foligno in the days of hisyouth. When he went to San Marco inFlorence, where his most enduring memorialremains to this day, Fra Angelico was aman of experience and an independence sofar in advance of his time, that some ofthe work he had accomplished comes tous to-day with a suggestion of absolute


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FRA ANGELICO 45modernity in thought if not in treatment.No beauty that our more sophisticated agecan reveal to us had passed him by, hepaints Nature as Milton painted it whenhe wrote the "Masque of Comus" and"PAllegro." And this manner of painting, sodifferent from that of men who mix them-selves with the world and surrender to itsfascinations, is the painting that endures.

IllIN SAN MARCO

It was in 1435, and Fra Angelico wasapproaching his fiftieth year, when thebrotherhood of San Dominico quitted theirconvent in Fiesole and went to find a newhome in Florence. With the turn of theyear they left a temporary resting-place inSan Giorgio Oltr' Arno and went into the


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46 FRA ANGELICOruined monastery of San Marco. This houseappears to have belonged to the brother-hood of San Silvestro whose behaviour hadbeen quite fitted to the fifteenth century inFlorence, but was not altogether creditableto a religious house. Pope Eugenius IV.,anxious to purify all the religious houses,gave San Marco to the Dominicans withthe consent of Cosimo di Medici, and avery poor gift it was at the time, for thedormitory had been destroyed by fire, andhastily-made wooden cabins could not keepout the rain and cold wind. There was agreat mortality among the brethren. Onceagain the Pope Eugenius interceded withthe powerful ruler of Florence, and Cosimosent for his well-beloved architect Michelozzoand commissioned him to rebuild the monas-tery. Naturally enough Fra Angelico, whosefeeling for architecture was finely developed,


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FRA ANGELICO 47came under the influence of the architect,and when the building was complete hewas commissioned to adorn the walls with ^frescoes that should keep before the brethrenthe actualities of the religious life, and enablethem to feel that the Spiritual Presence wasin their midst. Cosimo's munificence had not stoppedwith the presentation of the building to thebrotherhood. He equipped the monasterywith a famous library, provided all theservice books that were necessary, andgave the brethren for librarian a man whowas destined to ascend the Fisherman'sThrone and keep the keys of Heaven.The books were illuminated by FraAngelico's brother Benedetto, who hadtaken the vows with him, indeed somecritics are of opinion that Fra Angelicohimself assisted in the work, but for


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48 FRA ANGELICOthis belief there appears to be but a verysmall foundation. /y2* ThePope^ Eugenii^, compelled by / thequarrels of the great houses in Rome toleave the Eternal _CityT came to Florenceand saw Fra Angelico's work there, andthis visit paved the wav for the painter'ssojourn in Rome in the la^t years of hisfiieT Like so many of his contemporaries,Eugenius could find time amid the distrac-tions of a stormy and difficult existence tokeep a well-trained eye upon the artisticdevelopments going on around him, and hedid but wait for peace and opportunity toshow himself as keen a patron of art asthat "terrible pontiff," Julius della Rovere,for whom Michelangelo was to work in theSistine Chapel.

To realise the life that the painter sawaround him in the days when the Dominican


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PLATE VI.DETAIL FROM THE CORONATIONOF THE VIRGINThis is a detail from one of the pictures that have excited a

great deal of criticism. Professor Douglas calls the work "thelast and greatest of Fra Angelico's glorified miniatures." In thework as it stands in the Uffizi to-day, Christ is seen placing ajewel in the Virgin' s crown. Right and left stretches the Angelicchoir, below there is a great gathering of saints.


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FRA ANGELICO 51brotherhood first went to San Marco, itis necessary to turn to some historian ofFlorence in an endeavour to recall thesplendour and stateliness of the city's life.The limits of space forbid any attempt, how-ever modest, to picture Florence in detailas it was in those days, though the subjectcould scarcely be more tempting to thepen. The pomp and circumstance of lifewere not passed over by the painter, whoseextraordinary receptivity found so muchmore in Florence than in Fiesole for itsexercise. Some echo, however, subdued toconvent walls, lingers in the city to-daywhere San Marco preserves its greatpainter's reputation, and tells us that hewas not indifferent to the sights and soundsbeyond its gates.A few of the frescoes have lost a little

of their pristine beauty and yet, for all the


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52 FRA ANGELICOravages of time, the most faded amongthem can suggest much of the charm theypossessed when they were painted. It isin the open cloisters, of course, that thegreatest damage has been done, and thegreat "Crucifixion" in the chapter-househas not escaped lightly; but in the cellswhere the work is more protected, time hasdealt lightly with the frescoes and the twoor three little panels that help to make thefriar's lasting monument. Good judges havepointed out that the great "Crucifixion" inthe chapter-house, the largest work of thepainter, was never completed, and that thered background was intended to serve asa bed for the blue that was never put on.Nobody can say why this fine work wasabandoned, and reproduction in colour isimpossible. Even a detail would be unsatis-factory, but one of the lunettes from the


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FRA ANGELICO 53cloister is given here. It represents Christas a pilgrim meeting two Dominican brothers,and gives an excellent suggestion of FraAngelico at his best, revealing the deep feel-ing of the religious man, and the skill of theartist blended together in happiest and mostinspired union. To have seen the picturein his mind, the artist must have been adeeply religious man ; to have expressed thevision as he has expressed it in terms of lineand colour, the devotee must have been agreat artist.

From one of the cells in San Marco thechief part of another picture has been re-produced in these pages. It represents the"Coronation of the Virgin." Christ seated \xupon a white cloud is placing a crown uponthe Virgin's head ; there is a rainbow borderwith six saints. In order that the beautyof the central figures may be seen, no more


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54 FRA ANGELICOthan a part of the picture is given here. Itis the more important part, for the saintsare conventional figures, each with the handsuplifted in adoration, each with a halo roundhis head. The beauty of the stories thatFra Angelico sets before us was as true tohim as the beauty of the flowers he painted,and the landscape that met his eyes when-ever he walked abroad. The modern world,whether it doubt or believe, cannot butrecognise that the artist of San Marco hassucceeded as much by his faith as by hisart. The other frescoes of the DominicanHouse must be left for the fortunate minoritywho can visit them, but these two will befound to represent well and truthfully boththe religious idea and the artistic achieve-ment. To realise their merits to the fullone must not fail to bear in mind the de-velopment of painting at the time when


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FRA ANGELICO 55they were painted. For the men who cameafter Angelico the task was easier; he hadpaved the way for them. In the days whenSan Marco was decorated, the painter hadvery little to add to his technical knowledge,and nothing at all to his feeling for thebeauty of the Gospel stories, and few artistsof the fifteenth century have been so fortu-nate as to collect their best work in oneplace where it could remain undisturbedthroughout the ages.

Naturally enough it must passcloistersand chapter-house show signs of the timesall too clearly. "The Crucifixion" is fadednot so badly as Leonardo's " Last Supper " inthe Santa Maria della Grazie of Milan, butstill seriously, nor can all the lire of faithfulbut hurried tourists restore its charm. It isin the cells that the work of Fra Angelicowill linger longest, and it is pleasant to specu-


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56 FRA ANGELICOlate upon the debt that devout monks musthave owed to their artist brother, who couldgive them such exquisite embodiments of thetruth as he saw it to brighten their hardlives and assure them, even in hours ofdoubt and mental trouble, of the joys thatwould be associated with the latter end.^c Saxi^MaxQQ9^Jhmf^Jo^y be regarded, asan exquisite and enduring memorial of themiddle period_of\ Fra Angelico's life. Thesaint that was in him dreamed dreams andsaw visions, the artist that was in himexpressed them in fashion that calls foradmiration even in these days when thework done is nearly four hundred years old,and the thought that gave it birth is nolonger held in such universal esteem. Thedevotion that inspired the themes, thesimplicity of his handling, the beauty ofhis colour, the love of Nature that was


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FRA ANGELICO 57expressed as often as the picture wouldpermit, the reverential feeling in treatmentthat was bound to communicate itself tothe spectator, all these qualities make thework remarkable, and help us to see howstrong was the faith that inspired and keptthe artist happy in the cloisters when, hadhe wished to turn his talent to otherpurposes, he might have had riches andhonour. Leading rulers of men were build-ing palaces in every great city, conquerorsand statesmen were seeking to excel oneanother in tasteful and costly display. Ofthose who could have commanded wealth,honour, and comfort, the Dominican friarwas among the first. But it sufficed FraAngelico to serve neither kings nor princes,but to choose for his worship the Kingof kings "Who made the heavens andthe earth and all that is therein."


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58 FRA ANGELICOIVLATER YEARS

There is a great temptation to lingerawhile in San Marco with the friar, foreven to-day the place has not lost itsappeal, and there are sufficient landmarksin the surrounding city to enable us totrace the influence of men who were atonce the contemporaries and inspirers of hisgenius. Only the limits of space interveneto forbid too long a stay in Florence, andas the painter's later years were spent inRome we must follow him there. For thosewho wish to linger in the monastery thereare books in plenty, some dealing with theQuattrocento, others dealing with the Popes,others with Fra Angelico himself. Thisoutline of a painter's life seeks to do nomore than introduce him to those who may


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PLATE VII.THE INFANT CHRISTFrom the Convent of San Marco. This picture gives a fair

idea of the exquisite sweetness and delicacy with which thepainter handled the subject of the child Christ. He does nottreat this subject very often, but when he does the result is inevery way delightful.


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FRA ANGELICO 61be interested; it is not intended for thosewho wish to follow him beyond the limits ofa modest appreciation. Vasari, Crowe, andCavalcaselle, Professor Langton Douglas,Bernhard Berenson and others will supplythe more complete and detailed accountsof the painters life and works, and thecareful reader will find sufficient referencesto other writers to direct him to every sideissue.

Pope Eugenius IV., who visited Florencewhen he was exiled from Rome, hadsettled for a while in Bologna until theanti-Pope Felix V. fell from power, andhad then hastened back to Rome, andsettled down to beautify the Vatican. Likeall the great men of his generation he feltthe spirit of the Renaissance in the air, anddesired no more than leisure in order torespond to it. He remembered the clever


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62 FRA ANGELICOartist, whose work had charmed him in thedays of his Florentine exile, and sent aninvitation to Fra Angelico to come toRome and decorate one of the chapels inthe Vatican. In those days one travelled inItaly, even more slowly than one does to-day by the Italian express trainsstrangeas the statement may seem to moderns whoknow the country welland by the time thatthe friar had received the summons andhad responded to it, Eugenius IV. wouldappear to have relinquished the keys tohis successor. Happily the new PopeNicholas V. was a scholar, a gentleman,and a statesman, as responsive to the newideas as his predecessor in office. Hegathered the best men of his time to theVatican, which he proposed to rebuild, andhe entered upon a programme that couldscarcely have been carried out had he


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FRA ANGELICO 63enjoyed a much longer lease of life thanProvidence granted. Unfortunately he hadno more than eight years to rule at St.Peter's, and that did not serve for muchmore than a beginning of his great scheme.He was succeeded by Tomaso Parentucelli,that ardent scholar whom Cosimo di Medicihad appointed custodian of the collectionof MSS. that he gave to San Marco inFlorence when the Dominicans took posses-sion. As it happened Parentucelli himselfwas in the last year of his life when heascended the throne of St. Peter, and hisschemes, whether for the aid and develop-ment of scholarship or art, saw no fruition.But for all that Nicholas V. ruled for nomore than eight years in Rome, he didmuch for Fra Angelico, who painted thefrescoes in the Pope's private studio, anddecorated a chapel in St. Peter's that was


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64 FRA ANGELICOafterwards destroyed. This loss is of coursea very serious one, and suggests that thosewho ruled in the Vatican were not alwaysas careful as they might have been ofworks that would have outlived them solong had they been fairly treated. It isvery unfortunate that art should suffer fromthe caprices of the unintelligent. WhenSavonarola, also a Dominican monk, rousedthe Florentines to a sense of their lapsesfrom grace a few years after Fra Angelico'sdeath, they made a bonfire in the streetsof Florence of art work that was consideredimmoral. To sacrifice great work in thename of morality is bad enough, to destroyit for the sake of building operations isquite unpardonable.

In Rome the summer heat is well-nighunbearable. Even to-day the voluntary pri-soner of the Vatican retires to a villa in the


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FRA ANGELICO 65far end of his gardens towards the endof June, and none who can leave the citycares to remain in it when May has gone,and the Tiber becomes a thread, and feverhaunts its banks. Fra Angelico felt theburden of the summer and wished to sus-pend his work for a while. It so happenedthat he received an invitation from Orvietoto decorate the Duomo there during themonths of June, July, and August. Thefirst arrangement was that he should gothere every summer to escape the dog-days in Rome, but for reasons not knownto us the visit did not extend beyond oneyear, and the frescoes that he had paintedwere seriously injured by rain, and were notcompleted until Luca Signorelli took themin hand half a century later. The littlework that is attributed to the painter's brushto-day in Orvieto need not detain us here,


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66 FRA ANGELICOThe frescoes in Rome represent the sum-

mit of Fra Angelico's achievement, but theyhave not escaped the somewhat destructivehand of nineteenth - century German criti-cism ; one eminent authority having declaredthat they are not by Fra Angelico at all,but have been painted by pupils, BenozzoGozzoli receiving special mention in thisconnection. It is not necessary to takethis criticism too seriously. The handsmay be the hands of Esau, but "the voiceis Jacob's voice." The artist may havereceived some assistance from pupils, thebackgrounds may owe something to anotherhand ; there was no feeling, ethical or artistic,to keep assistants from coming to the aidof their master, but the whole compositionand the whole feeling of the frescoes pro-claim the friar. The subjects are incidentsin the life of St. Stephen and St. Lorenzo,


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FRA ANGELICO 67ending, of course, after the inevitable fashionof the time, with a representation of themartyrdom. For once these martyrdomshave a suggestion of reality. In the earlydays of Fra Angelico's work his representa-tions of martyrdoms and suffering were sonaive that they could hardly do more thanprovoke a smile. His idea of hell was verysimple, and when he wished to be verybitter indeedto express his anger at itsfullesthe peopled the nether world withbrothers of the great rival order of St.Francis. For the founder of that order,Angelico had the greatest love and admira-tion; who indeed could refuse to pay suchtribute even to-day ? But all the brethren didnot live up to the rule of their founder, andthe Dominican painter's rebuke seems veryquaint in our eyes, though doubtless it madea great sensation when it was administered.


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68 FRA ANGELICOIn Rome the painter's feeling for natural

beauty reaches the height of its expression,indeed one feels that every department ofhis work is at its best and highest there.After his departure from the Eternal City,the frescoes finished, and himself on theshady side of his Sixtieth vear, the interven-ing centuries descend like a cloud, blottingout the greater part of the record. Thecloud lifts for a moment to show us " Beato "Angelico, Prior of the Dominican Monasteryat Fiesole, to which more than forty yearsago he had claimed admission as a novice,and then he is back again in Rome in thechief convent of his ,order, Santa MariaSopra Minerva. ^There the light that hadburned so brilliantly for nearly half a cen-tury, illuminating the most alluring aspectsof the Christian faith, paled and went out.The body was laid_to_rest_in the convent


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PLATE VIII.ST. PETER THE MARTYRThis is a fresco from the Cloisters of San Marco and representsSt Peter, a saint whose appeal to the artist was very great

The fact that the saint has his finger to his lips may be taken asthe artist's method of emphasising the rule of silence of his Order.In fact the St Peter Martyr is generally called the "Silenzio,"and like so many of the artist's pictures must be taken to have aspecial spiritual significance.


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FRA ANGELICO 71Church, near the tomb of St. Catherine, andit is said that the epitaph was composedby the Pope. Thereafter the order of St.Dominic produced no great personalityuntil it gave to the world a man of verydifferent stamp in Fra Girolamo Savonarola.

VA RETROSPECT

In art as in music and literature thepath of the innovator is beset by diffi-culties, and if, among all the movementsthat claim our attention to-day, that of theRenaissance in fifteenth-century Italy is themost fascinating, it is because the difficultieswere conquered so brilliantly. The centuryseemed to breed a race of men that enjoyedthe inestimable advantage of knowing whatthey wanted, and were determined to sue-


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72 FRA ANGELICOceed. It did not matter that the paths theytrod were new. Each man had mapped outa line of development for himself and wentstrenuously along his chosen road, quitecertain that he would find the goal of hisambition at the journey's end. Curiouslyenough when the paths were those of con-quest there was always a road leading fromthem to patronage of the arts. This maybe because art in those days was largelydevoted to the service of the Church, andwhen a man had acquired all that theft orconquest could give him, and realised thathe could not hope to wage successful warupon time, he began to think of his latterdays. Few men of the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries could approach deathwith confidence, and they sought to putsomething to their credit against the Dayof Judgment. To beautify religious houses,


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FRA ANGELICO 73to build houses for Holy Brotherhoods, thesewere the simplest and most obvious waysof placating the Recording Angel, and tothe uneasiness of rich and unscrupulousmen the Church owes not a few of hermost remarkable monuments. Moreover,even the tyrants wished to have some en-during memorial. Cosimo di Medici, whogave San Lorenzo and San Marco toFlorence, remarked to his historian Bisticci,"Fifty years will not pass before we aredriven out of Florence, but these buildingswill remain." After all we can forget andforgive the superstition and self-glorificationthat gave so much enduring wealth to thegreat cities of Italy.

Doubtless there were many failuresamong the Renaissance artists ; it is hardlyan exaggeration to say that in paintingalone there are scores of men belonging to


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74 FRA ANGELICOthe Quattrocento who have left us nothingbut their names. Victory was to the fittestthey alone survived and left the impress oftheir genius upon their own and succeed-ing generations. If we look for a momentto Fra Angelico's contemporaries we seeat once that it was an age of great men.Filippo Brunelleschi was born ten yearsbefore Angelico, and lived until the year 1446.He designed the dome of the Cathedral ofFlorence, the Cloisters of San Lorenzo, theSagrestia Vecchia, the Church of St. Law-rence, and other works too numerous to men-tion. Donatello, whose work to this hour is"all a wonder and a great desire ;" Ghiberti,to whom Florence owes the gates of theBaptistery ; Michelozzo, who built the MediciPalace and the Convent of San Marco, andwas associated with Luca della Robbia inmaking the bronze gates of the Sacristy


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FRA ANGELICO 75of the Duomo, belong to the same period,and were intimately associated with Brunel-leschi in much of the work that makesFlorence one of the show-places of theworld to-day. Luca della Robbia was bornwhen Fra Angelico was no more thantwelve years old. Masolino, Masaccio, andFra Filippo Lippi were among the paintersof Fra Angelico's own time, while, when hewas approaching middle age, Gian Belliniand Andrea Mantegna were growing up,and when Fra Angelico died, Florence wasfull of great artists who were destined tocarry on his work. Of course, the literaryactivity was as great as the activity of theartists ; one recalls with a thrill of emotionthat Petrarch and Boccaccio were only justnumbered among the deadtheir work heldall its earliest freshness. If at first sightthese matters seem tp be outside the scope


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76 FRA ANGELICOof a brief consideration of Fra Angelico's lifeand work, second thought will justify theinclusion even in these narrow limits.

Every artist is in a sense an echo ofhis environment and, although Fra Angelicomust have passed the greater part ofhis life within monastery walls, yet theevidence of his pictures must convince allwho look with discerning eyes, that hewas profoundly influenced by the life thatwent on around him. The artistic andliterary movements of the time affectedhim deeply and, in his own modest wayhe was constantly striving to enlarge theboundaries of his art, to develop itsachievements in a manner that must havemade even his early pictures appear asdangerous as the works of artists likeManet and Degas seemed to their con-temporaries. Had he lived in other times,


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FRA ANGELICO 77had his lines been cast in some quiet cityto which no echo of the new movement inart and letters could penetrate, Fra Angelicomight still have painted interesting picturesbut he would not have got beyond hisearliest manner, indeed he might not haveattained to what is best in that. It wouldhave been so very easy for a narrow-mindedsuperior to say that the innovations werewrong, that the human figure in all itsbeauty must not be expressed by a painterwhen presenting Virgin and Child, that theold formal way was the right one. Therecould have been no appeal against sucha judgment. Doubtless many a buddinggenius has been nipped in this fashion byshort-sighted authority. How happy thenwas the friar with time and place unitedin his service.


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78 FRA ANGELICOVI

CONCLUSIONFra Angelico has placed artists and

laymen in his debt, and as far as the latterare concerned the cause is obvious enough.A certain conviction of the truth of everystory he had to tell shines like a brightlight through all his pictures; they are aforce for the development and strengthen-ing of belief. Even to-day one finds amongthe crowd of tourists that "does" SanMarco in half-an-hour or more, a fewvisitors whose interest is of another kind,while there is no lack of admirers for thework to be seen in the Uffizi, though muchof it belongs to the earliest part of theartist's life. So it happens that the pictureshave a well-defined literary and spiritual


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FRA ANGELICO 79value, and it is not surprising to thinkthat the Church has granted posthu-mous honours to the man whose workhas brought so much honour in its train.Artists acknowledge a great . debt to thefriar, but a debt of another kind. As Pro-fessor Langton Douglas has pointed out inhis admirable and exhaustive work uponFra AngelicoT jthe friary with his contem-poraries, Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, arethe fathers of modern landscape. The newmovement was continued and developedby Verrocchio and Da Vinci on the oneside, and by Perugino and Raphael on theother. Then again Fra Angelico made a

if

definite movement towards portrait painting,by giving the likeness of some of his friendsand patrons to saints and martyrs. Thiswas yet another of the daring innovations- ..that marked the opening of the Quattro-


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80 FRA ANGELICOcento and, to realise how much it stood forwe must consider for a moment the com-parative barrenness of modern art, which inthe hands of its most popular artists haslittle or nothing that is new to say to us.Indeed it may be remarked with regretthat great praise often attaches to theman who goes back to the fifteenth andsixteenth century, although a little reflec-tion would enable every thoughtful personto see that an art, forced to fall back upontraditions of the past, is far from being ina flourishing condition.

The plates are printed by Bemrosb Dalziel, Ltd., WatfordThe text at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh


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fra angelico - masterpieces in colour

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