Word: domenico
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...foot of the hill of Fiesole outside Florence, came at a crucial time. A wave of reform was sweeping the Dominican monasteries of Italy; revived humanism, based on study of recently rediscovered classic manuscripts, was threatening the church with a new kind of paganism. The new convent of San Domenico, then less than two years in existence, was a spearhead of the reformed order of Dominican Observants. Its leader, the eloquent Fra Dominici, raised up against the New Learning the stern teachings of the church fathers: "Christ is our only guide to happiness . . . our father, our leader, our light...
...Star, where the Christ child tenderly reassures his mother, is one of the few paintings in which Fra Angelico yielded to the popular taste for the sentimental. The future glory of Fra Angelico's work is first declared in the Annunciation scene done for the church of San Domenico in Cortona (see p. 54). Here the Virgin sits serenely with hands folded across her breast in a gesture that sums up one of the great credos of monasticism: "Thy will be done...
...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...
...last he was working on his murals in Rome, but it is clear that Fra Angelico, who had moved through the full cycle from medieval illuminations to the heroic architectural vision of the Renaissance, had done his greatest work for his fellow monks in the monasteries of San Domenico and San Marco and the church at Cortona, where he had lived and worshiped...