Fra Angelico & Fra Filippo Lippi By: Sharon J. and Christine T.

Fra Angelico “He was kind to other people and moderate, lived chastely and far from the temptations of this world. He would often say that anyone practicing the art of painting needed a quiet and untroubled life, and that the man who portrayed the words of Christ should live with Christ. Continue: In short, this monk cannot be praised highly enough, for he was humble and modest in every word and deed, and skillful and reverent in his paintings. The saints which he portrayed resembled true saints more closely than those done by any other artist.”

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico was born Guidolino di Pietro, around 1395 in Vicchio di Mugello. He died in Rome in 1455. He was a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio. This is after the bullet about his death: He became a Dominican monk and remained one for most of his life. He took the name Giovanni da Fiesole, but is now known to all as Fra Angelico – “Brother Angel.”

Fra Angelico His work was a product of his life as a monk. Painting was his vocation and his works were created to adorn churches and monasteries. Picture above: Fiesoli, the Tuscan hillside town where Fra Angelic first worked.

Fra Angelico His earliest paintings were probably manuscript illumination. Fra Angelico’s brother, who entered monastic life with him, was a scribe.

Fra Angelico At Fiesoli he produced his first known works. An altarpiece for the high altar. The Annunciateion (now in the Prado). -The Coronation of the Virgin (Now in the Louvre). -…and numerous frescoes in the chapter room and convent.

Fra Angelico His use of perspective is still in the Byzantine tradition of inverse perspective, placing the viewer as the point of view of the figures in the icon - instead of the other way around. The intent is to place the viewer in divine, not human, space. This first before you start the paragraph Above: Fra Angelico is a Renaissance painter, but he continued to employ more traditional techniques

Fra Angelico In another work, his Deposition, we see a painting that owes much to Masaccio in terms of its presentation of subjects and space.

Fra Angelico H.W. Janson describes Fra Angelico’s art as “…something of a paradox. The deeply reverential attitude presents an admixture of traditional Gothic piety and Renaissance grandeur bestilled by contemplative calm.” Name of Painting: Noli mi Tangere

Fra Angelico This comes after all written above: -Fra Angelico uses perspective in places in this painting, while ignoring it elsewhere. See the bowsprit of the ship. Also note how light, which gives spatial depth, strikes the figures from the front left, and the mountains from the rear left. -Figures are shown in tremendous detail, while the landscape is given in simplified form. -Curiously, the painting works, regardless of these oddities. His St. Nicholas of Bari depicts two miracles of the saint, who appears twice – as a saint in the sky above and thanking a merchant in the bottom left of the painting.

Fra Angelico In 1436 he and his Dominican brothers moved to San Marco, in Florence. Here, some of his most famous works adorn the monks’ cells. These were intended to assist in prayer. Name of Painting: The Transfiguration

Fra Angelico Other hugely important works adorn the altarpiece. Name of Painting: The Decapitation of Saints Cosmas and Damian

Fra Angelico His fame brought him commissions from two popes. – Eugenius and Nicholas. Name of Art: The Ordination of St. Lawrence

Fra Angelico Other important works were commissioned for the cathedral of Orvieto, in Italy. Name: Christ in Majesty

Fra Angelico This quiet, good man, was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984. The Roman Catholic Church celebrates February 18 as his feast day – commemorating his death in 1455. This is to be said first before the other bullets: -Above all, Fra Angelico is known for the quiet serenity of his works.

Fra Filippo Lippi ‘Fra Filippo Lippi was gracious and ornate and exceedingly skilful; he was very good at compositions and at variety, at coloring, relief, and in ornaments of every kind', wrote Cristoforo Landino in 1480; his comment remains a valid assessment of Fra Filippo's style Continue: Fra Filippo's pictures were popular in Florence and he was actively supported by the Medici family, who commissioned the pictures of ‘The Annunciation’ and the ‘Seven Saints’.

Fra Filippo Lippi As an orphan Filippo was sent to the Carmelite friary in Florence. But he was not temperamentally suited to be a friar. His life is a tale of lawsuits, complaints, broken promises and scandal. Continue: Fra Filippo's fame as a painter spread beyond his native Florence and he spent long periods painting fresco cycles in Prato and Spoleto, where he died. In 1456 he abducted a nun, Lucrezia Buti, from the convent in Prato where he was chaplain. He was finally permitted to marry her. Their son Filippo was later taught in Lippi's workshop, as was Botticelli.

Fra Filippo Lippi Not all Florentine painting during the mid 15th century was of a religious nature, during this time portraiture comes into its own as a major form of artistic expression. One of the most famous of these portrait artists was Lippi His painting called Portrait of a Woman and Man 1435-1445 (left) is one of the earliest surviving double portraits of the Renaissance The exact reason for the painting still remains a mystery Some historians argue that the sumptuousness of the woman’s costume indicates she is a newlywed. If you look closely at the embroidered beads on her sleeve they spell out the word Lealta, meaning Loyalty It appears the mans portrait was added after the portrait of the woman was completed and since he is oddly unable to meet her gaze some historians speculate this was a memorial portrait after her death.

Fra Filippo Lippi Madonna and Child with Angles, c Fra Filippo Lippi Madonna and Child with Angles, c. 1455, tempera on wood Fra Filippo Lippi/ linear style/ use of models

Fra Filippo Lippi. Madonna Adoring Christ, 1450s