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Fra Giovanni Angelico Da Fiesole

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2024

S. M. B. O.P.
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“It is of its very essence that the recognition of beauty should satisfy the will.”—ST.Thomas.

It is difficult to write about Fra Angelico without rhapsodizing. “He cannot be praised too much”: the beauties of his pictures “baffle description”: “his art was not only inborn and inspired but also exercised with singular care, ability and judgment.” “He perfected the mystic poetry of art.” These and suchlike phrases taken haphazard from sketches of his life, can be found in almost any book that speaks of him. One is almost tempted at the outset to shirk the effort of analysis with a Chaucerian “There is na more to say,” for at the best words are inadequate expressions of the thoughts and emotions inspired by such a painter. Yet perhaps one can be forgiven for joining in the chorus of his praise by judging him from a somewhat unusual angle.

Type
Research Article
Information
Blackfriars , Volume 16 , Issue 186 , September 1935 , pp. 681 - 690
Copyright
Copyright © 1935 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 The mediaeval artist “was most concerned to prevent anyone supposing that a tree was only a tree, or the mother and child merely what they seemed” (Social Theories of the Middle Ages, Fr. Bede Jarrett, O.P.).

2 In St. Domenico at Siena. It is interesting to note that Fra Angelico was eventually laid to rest in one of Rome’s few Gothic churches—the Minerva—where St. Catherine lies beneath the High Altar.

3 Such a thing is not impossible. Richard II (who appears in one part of the painting) was a great patron of the Order and built for it many noble churches. If the painting had any connexion with the Order it was quite likely that it would be known to Italian Dominicans.

4 This is Fra Angelico’s only remark, recorded by Vasari, as Fr. Bede Jarrett notes in his Social Theories of the Middle Ages.