Word: angelico
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Angelico obviously preferred working for his brothers at San Domenico, but he was given little time to carry out his wishes. The Coronation of the Virgin (see p. 35) was his last work at Fiesole, and even in this the figures of the Virgin and Christ were left to be finished by another hand...
Scholar's Prince. What called Fra Angelico away from San Domenico was the triumphant return from political exile on Oct. 6, 1434 of Cosimo de' Medici, the wealthiest banker of his day, munificent benefactor and art patron whose scholarly passions and political adroitness made Florence the foremost city of the Renaissance. Cosimo's rule created for Florence an interval of peace and poise in which a man could aspire to make a balanced masterpiece of his life. As the outward expression of this, Cosimo set to work on a program to make Florence the wonder of Europe...
...upon Pope Eugenius IV to transfer from the Sylvetrines to the Dominican Observants. Cosimo ordered his favorite architect Michelozzo to repair the building, richly endowed it with 400 rare manuscripts and classic statues of Venus and Apollo. To do the frescoes, Cosimo called on the great Dominican painter Fra Angelico...
While the old San Marco buildings were being repaired, the Dominicans lived in huts and damp cells. But as the ground floor was readied, Fra Angelico and his assistants went to work, painting a series of Crucifixions in the cloister, the main refectory and the chapter house. For Cosimo's cell, largest in the monastery, where the Medici prince liked to retire for contemplation, Fra Angelico repeated once again the Coming of the Magi at Cosimo's request, "to have this example of Eastern kings laying down their crowns at the manger of Bethlehem always before his eyes...
Within the monastery walls of San Marco. Fra Angelico concentrated on the simple devotional images required by his fellow monks for their meditations and prayers. The results, seen in the six cells definitely painted by Fra Angelico, represent Fra Angelico at his strongest and purest. To portray The Mocking of Christ, he painted a regal, blindfolded Christ figure crowned with thorns; the throng of jeering soldiery appear only as a group of disembodied hands and a loutish head, cap raised in sarcasm, spitting upon Christ. By abstracting all but the essential central image, Fra Angelico makes the eye travel through...