Fra Angelico | Page 7

time the initiator of "Quattrocento" art, whose powerful
development irresistibly attracted him. He painted so many pictures for
the houses of Florentine citizens, that "I was often astonished," writes
Vasari, "how one man alone could, even in many years, do so much
and so well." "And we also," justly observes Milanesi, "are not less
amazed than Vasari, for although many works have been dispersed or
are still hidden, yet a great number still remain both in Italy and other
countries, and, what is more remarkable, the greater part are not
mentioned by Vasari."[14]
We will follow our artist in his different places of abode, thus
establishing the various periods of his life and artistic productions;
from the Fiesole hills, where the first seedlings of his fantasy were
sown, to green Umbria, where his early works are, works warm with
enthusiasm, faith and youthful candour: from Florence, which he
enriched with admirable frescoes, and innumerable pictures dazzling
with gold and azure, to Rome, where he left his grand pictorial legacy
in the oratory of Pope Nicholas V.
[Illustration: Angels of the "Last Judgement."]

I.
FRA ANGELICO AT CORTONA AND PERUGIA.

[1409-1418.]
[Illustration: ANGEL OF THE ANNUNCIATION. (Pinacoteca,
Perugia.)]
If, after a study of the pictorial works of Fra Angelico, any one should
undertake to make a precise classification of them, he would--although
his frescoes are easy enough to classify--find himself confronted by no
small difficulty in regard to the panel paintings.
So active and original was the artist, and so grand in his simplicity, that
he always remained just what he appeared from the beginning,--the
painter of ingenuous piety, mystical ecstasy, and intense religious
fervour.
[Illustration: HISTORY OF ST. DOMINIC'S LIFE.]
No record is extant of his first visit to Foligno, but in the church of St.
Dominic at Cortona we may still admire a triptych with the Virgin and
four Saints; an Annunciation; and two "predelle"; one of which is said
to have belonged to the picture of St. Dominic, as the scenes relate to
the life of that Saint, and the other with some stories of the Virgin, to
the Annunciation mentioned above.
[Illustration: THE RESURRECTION OF CARDINAL DE'
CECCANI'S NEPHEW.]
To the story of St. Dominic (which had already been treated in a
masterly manner by Fra Guglielmo, in the "arca" at Bologna, and by
Traini in his picture at Pisa), Fra Angelico has, in some scenes, given a
fuller development, but with less dramatic sentiment; exactly the good
and bad points which are more clearly shown in his other works. The
"predella", divided into seven parts, represents the birth of Saint
Dominic; the dream of Pope Honorius III., to whom the Saint appears
in act of steadying the falling church; the meeting of the Saint with St.
Francis; the confirmation of his rule by means of the Virgin; the visits
of St. Peter and St. Paul; the dispute with heretics; the resurrection of
the nephew of Cardinal de' Ceccani; the supper of the Saint and his

brethren; and lastly his death.
[Illustration: DEATH OF ST. DOMINIC.]
The scene of the resurrection of the young Napoleon, nephew of
Cardinal Stefano de' Ceccani, had been already powerfully depicted by
Traini; in Angelico's hands it comes out restrained and cold, the acts of
amazement in the devotees present at the miracle, who raise their hands
in astonishment, are too conventional: and it is precisely in the
intermingling of these gestures of sorrow for the death, and wonder for
the revivication, that the Pisan artist has brought out his best effects. As
we have before pointed out, the calm spirit of Fra Angelico avoided
realistic representation; his figures always suggest love, faith and
resignation, but are never agitated; like the soul of their author, they are
incapable of violent action; therefore when these should be drawn, the
representation falls below reality. We shall see instances of this in other
works of his.
[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION. (Church of Gesù, Cortona.)]
One of Angelico's most familiar subjects was the Annunciation, and the
most interesting of the Cortona pictures, is that of the angel's visit to
Mary. Its motive is simple and clear, as it was transmitted from early
Christian art; the general lines are unchanged, but the expression
greatly so. Fra Angelico did not disturb the religious solemnity of the
apparition with useless accessories; faithful to his own sentiment, he
has clothed Mary with humility. She sits beneath the portico, the book
neglected on her lap, her hands crossed, and her drooping head inclined
towards the heavenly messenger. The golden-winged angel with roseate
robe also bends before the Virgin, the right hand pointing to her breast
and the left to the dove which sheds celestial rays on Mary's head. In
the background Adam and Eve are being expelled from the terrestrial
Paradise, symbol of