Fra Angelico

Not to be confused with Frangelico.

Fra Angelico
Posthumous portrait from The Preaching of the Antichrist by Luca Signorelli (c. 1501) in Orvieto Cathedral, Italy
Born	Guido di Pietro c. 1395 Vicchio, Mugello, Republic of Florence
Died	18 February 1455 (aged about 60) Rome, Papal States
Resting place	Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Known for	Painting Frescoes
Notable work	Annunciation of Cortona Fiesole Altarpiece San Marco Altarpiece Deposition of Christ Niccoline Chapel
Movement	Early Renaissance
Patrons	Cosimo de' Medici Pope Eugene IV Pope Nicholas V

Blessed John of Fiesole O.P.
Venerated in	Catholic Church (Dominican Order)
Beatified	3 October 1982, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Feast	18 February
Patronage	Catholic artists

Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395 – 18 February 1455), known posthumously as Fra Angelico (/ˌfrɑː ænˈdʒɛlɪkoʊ/ FRAH an-JEL-ik-oh, Italian: [ˈfra anˈdʒɛːliko]), was an Italian Dominican friar and painter active during the early Florentine Renaissance.

Angelico created a series of frescoes for the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence, where he received the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici. His works include the San Marco Altarpiece and the Deposition of Christ, both made for the convent of San Marco. Painting exclusively religious subjects throughout his career, Angelico completed commissions in Rome under the patronage of Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V. Angelico was a pioneer of the artistic trends that came to distinguish the early Renaissance, namely linear perspective and a greater attention to depth and form than had been practised in the late Medieval period.^[1]

Angelico was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. In 1984, John Paul declared him the patron of Catholic artists.

Biography

He was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole ("Friar John of Fiesole"), reflecting the town where he joined the Dominican order, and Fra Giovanni Angelico ("Angelic Brother John"). In modern Italian, he is referred to as Beato Angelico ("Blessed Angelic One") following his beatification by Pope John Paul II.^[2]

Early life, 1395–1436

Fra Angelico was born around 1395^[3] in Mugello, near Fiesole in Tuscany. He was baptised Guido di Pietro and had a younger brother named Benedetto. The earliest known record of him is dated 17 October 1417, when he attended a religious confraternity or guild at the Carmine Church under the name Guido di Pietro. Payments made to Guido di Pietro in January and February 1418 for work at the church of Santo Stefano del Ponte in Florence indicate that he was already working as a painter.^[4]

By 1423, Angelico had joined the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole. Following the custom of adopting a new name upon entering a religious order, he adopted the name Fra Giovanni (Friar John).^[5] As a Dominican, he relied on alms and donations for his livelihood. Angelico initially trained as a manuscript illuminator and may have collaborated with his brother Benedetto, who also joined the Dominican Order. Some illuminated manuscripts have been attributed to him or his workshop, though these attributions remain debated.^[6] He may have been influenced by Lorenzo Monaco, though direct training is not documented, and influences from the Sienese school are evident in his work.^[7] Angelico trained with Master Varricho in Milan.^[8] According to Giorgio Vasari, Angelico's first major work was an altarpiece and a painted screen for the Charterhouse (Carthusian monastery) of Florence, though nothing remains of these today.^[6]

From 1408 to 1418, Angelico painted frescoes, many of which have now been lost, at the Dominican friary of Cortona as an assistant to Gherardo Starnina or one of his followers.^[9] By 1418, he had returned to Fiesole, where he painted a number of works for the monastery, including the Fiesole Altarpiece. A predella of the altarpiece depicting Christ in Glory alongside over 250 figures, including beatified Dominicans, is conserved in the National Gallery.^[10] Around 1427, Angelico produced an altarpiece depicting the Coronation of the Virgin, which remained at San Domenico until 1812 when artist and collector Vivant Denon acquired it for the Louvre.^[11] Angelico also produced a Madonna of Humility now kept in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Also completed at this time were an Annunciation and a Madonna of the Pomegranate, both of which are now in the Prado Museum.

San Marco, Florence, 1436–1445

Annunciation, c. 1440–1445

In 1436, Angelico was one of a number of friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly built convent of San Marco in Florence. This move placed him at the heart of the artistic life of the region. During these years in Florence, he was certainly in contact with the three artistic circles in the city in the early 15th century: the school of miniaturists, the workshops of the last Giottesque students (followers of Giotto), and a group of young sculptors and architects destined for great fame: Jacopo della Quercia, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello.^[12]

Angelico soon attracted the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the city's governing authority (or "Signoria"), and founder of the Medici Dynasty that was to dominate Florentine politics for much of the Renaissance. Cosimo had a cell reserved for himself at the convent as a retreat from the world. Vasari reports that Cosimo commissioned Angelico to decorate the convent with frescoes, which were greatly admired at the time.^[13] They include the magnificent fresco of the Chapter House, the much-reproduced Annunciation at the top of the stairs leading to the cells, the Maesta (or Coronation of the Madonna) with Saints (cell 9), and many other smaller devotional frescoes in the cells depicting stories of the Nativity and Passion of Jesus.^[6]

In his early works, Angelico retained a Gothic style. In the small tabernacles of San Marco, however, the simplicity of his compositions and colours shows traces of the mature style that was to characterise his works. In his Deposition of Christ, produced for the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Trinita, he reached the full expression of this style. In this painting, the naturalistic spirit of the 15th century is affirmed by the lifelike figures, who possess a variety of expressions and gestures, as well as in the representation of a naturalistic landscape, which replaced the traditional gold ground typical of the Gothic period.^[14]

San Marco Altarpiece

In 1439, Angelico completed one of his most famous and influential works: the San Marco Altarpiece. It created a new religious genre, Sacra Conversazione (Sacred Conversation), later used by artists including Giovanni Bellini, Titian, Perugino and Raphael.^[15] Although representations of the enthroned Madonna and Child surrounded by saints were common, they were depicted in a heaven-like setting, hovering as spiritual presences rather than with earthly substance. In the San Marco Altarpiece, the saints stand squarely within the space, grouped in a natural way as if conversing about their shared witness of the Virgin Mary.

The Crucified Christ (detail)

The Vatican, 1445–1455

In 1445, Pope Eugene IV summoned Angelico to Rome to paint the frescoes of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament at St Peter's, later demolished by Pope Paul III. Vasari suggests that at this time Angelico was offered the Archbishopric of Florence by Pope Nicholas V, which he rejected, recommending another friar in his place. However, the story does not align with the historical facts. In 1445 the Pope was Eugene IV and Nicholas was not to be elected until two years later in March 1447. The archbishop in question during 1446–1459 was the Dominican Antoninus of Florence (Antonio Pierozzi), who was canonised by Pope Adrian VI in 1523.^{[original research?]}

In 1447, Angelico was in Orvieto with his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, painting works for the Cathedral. Among his other pupils was Zanobi Strozzi.^[16]

From 1447 to 1449, Angelico was again at the Vatican, designing the frescoes for the Niccoline Chapel for Nicholas V. The scenes from the lives of the two martyred deacons of the Early Christian Church, St. Stephen and St. Lawrence may have been executed wholly or in part by assistants. The small chapel, with its brightly frescoed walls and gold leaf decorations, gives the impression of a jewel box. From 1449 until 1452, Angelico returned to the convent in Fiesole, where he became the Prior.^[6][17]

Death and beatification

Fra Angelico's tomb in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Fra Angelico died in 1455 while staying at a Dominican convent in Rome, possibly on an order to work on Pope Nicholas' chapel. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome.^[6][17][18] Angelico was interred in a niche near the altar in a marble tomb. The tombstone is an effigy carved in relief depicting Angelico in a Dominican habit. Above the tomb are two epitaphs, probably by Lorenzo Valla.^[19] The first reads:

Give me not praise for being another Apelles,
But say, rather, that in the name of Christ, that I gave all I had to the poor.
The deeds that count on Earth are not the ones that count in Heaven.
That city which is the flower of Etruria bore me, Giovanni.^[6]

Below this is inscribed:^{[citation needed]}

In this place is enshrined the glory, the mirror, and the ornament of painters, John the Florentine. A religious and a true servant of God, he was a brother of the holy Order of Saint Dominic. His disciples mourn the death of such a great master, for who will find another brush like his? His homeland and his order mourn the death of a distinguished painter, who had no equal in his art.

The English writer and critic William Michael Rossetti wrote of the friar:

From various accounts of Fra Angelico's life, it is possible to gain some sense of why he was deserving of canonization. He led the devout and ascetic life of a Dominican friar, and never rose above that rank; he followed the dictates of the order in caring for the poor; he was always good-humored. All of his many paintings were of divine subjects, and it seems that he never altered or retouched them, perhaps from a religious conviction that, because his paintings were divinely inspired, they should retain their original form. He was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should be with Christ. It is averred that he never handled a brush without fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion. The Last Judgment and the Annunciation were two of the subjects he most frequently treated.^[20][17]

Pope John Paul II beatified Angelico on 3 October 1982 and in 1984 declared him patron of Catholic artists.^[21] John Paul II noted that:

Angelico was reported to say "He who does Christ's work must stay with Christ always". This motto earned him the epithet "Blessed Angelico", because of the perfect integrity of his life and the almost divine beauty of the images he painted, to a superlative extent those of the Blessed Virgin Mary.^{[citation needed]}

He is commemorated by the current Roman Martyrology on 18 February,^[22] the date of his death in 1455. There the Latin text reads Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus ("Blessed John of Fiesole, known as the Angelic").

Evaluation

The Day of Judgement, upper panel of an altarpiece in the convent of San Marco, Florence. (1425–1430)

A Thebaide, showing the activities in the lives of the saints, 1420

Background

Angelico worked during a period of significant change in European artistic style, marked by the transition from the Medieval tradition to the Early Renaissance. This shift began in the late fourteenth century with artists such as Giotto and his contemporaries, including Giusto de' Menabuoi. Both produced major works in Padua, while Giotto had earlier trained in Florence under the Gothic painter Cimabue.^[23]

Giotto's fresco cycle depicting the life of Saint Francis in the Bardi Chapel at Santa Croce in Florence represented a departure from earlier conventions through its emphasis on naturalism, spatial coherence, and emotional expression. His approach influenced a number of later painters who adopted and expanded upon his techniques. Among these artists were Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, whose work further developed narrative clarity and realism, contributing to the artistic fields Angelico and other Early Renaissance painters followed.^[15]

The Adoration of the Magi is a tondo depicting the arrival of the Magi during the Nativity of Christ. It is credited to Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi and dates to c. 1440/1460.

Altarpieces

The works of Angelico combine elements of the late Gothic tradition with emerging Renaissance principles. In the Coronation of the Virgin, an altarpiece painted for the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, Angelico employed features typical of prestigious fourteenth-century altarpieces, including a finely worked gold ground and extensive use of azurite and vermilion pigments. The gilded haloes and gold-edged garments reflect the refined decorative conventions of Gothic painting.

The work also demonstrates characteristics associated with the Renaissance. In contrast to earlier Gothic examples, such as altarpieces by Gentile da Fabriano, Angelico's figures are rendered with greater solidity, three-dimensional form, and naturalism. The drapery of the garments follows the structure of the bodies beneath, and the figures convey a sense of physical weight, despite being depicted standing on clouds rather than on solid ground.

The Transfiguration shows the directness, simplicity and restrained palette typical of these frescoes. Located in a monk's cell at the Convent San' Marco, its apparent purpose is to encourage private devotion.

Frescoes

Angelico produced a series of frescoes for the cells of San Marco that built upon Masaccio's work. The dormitory of San Marco consists of three corridors with thirty-eight internal cells, each decorated by Angelico with frescoes depicting scenes from the life of Jesus in a loose narrative sequence.

The fresoes are the same shape as the arched window and vaulted ceiling of each cell. The decoration and style reflects the Dominican Rule's focus on charity, and the cells contain no other decorations to distract from the fresco scenes. Vasari explains that Angelico was inspired to create a large Crucifixion scene with many saints for the Chapter House after Cosimo de' Medici saw the frescoes. As with the other frescoes, de' Medici's patronage did not influence Angelico's artistic expression with displays of wealth.^[6]

Masaccio ventured into perspective with his creation of a realistically painted niche at Santa Maria Novella. Subsequently, Angelico demonstrated an understanding of linear perspective, particularly in his Annunciation paintings set inside the sort of arcades that Michelozzo and Brunelleschi created at San Marco and the square in front of it.^[15]

Lives of the Saints

Saint Lawrence distributing alms 1447–1450, fresco, Chapel of Nicholas V, Vatican City.^[24] This painting incorporates the expensive pigments, gold leaf and elaborate design typical of Vatican commissions.

When Fra Angelico went to the Vatican to decorate the chapel of Pope Nicholas, he was again confronted with the need to please the very wealthiest of clients. In consequence, walking into the small chapel is like stepping into a jewel box. The walls are decked with the brilliance of colour and gold that are found in the most lavish creations of the Gothic painter Simone Martini at the Lower Church of St Francis of Assisi, a hundred years earlier. Yet Angelico created designs that reveal his own preoccupation with humanity, humility, and piety. The figures, in their lavish gilded robes, have the sweetness and gentleness for which his works are famous. According to Vasari, "in their bearing and expression, the saints painted by Angelico come nearer to the truth than the figures done by any other artist."^[25]

It is probable that much of the actual painting was done by his assistants to his design. Benozzo Gozzoli was a highly accomplished painter but took his art further towards the fully developed Renaissance style with his expressive and lifelike portraits in his masterpiece depicting the Journey of the Magi, painted in the Medici's private chapel at their palazzo.^[26]

Blessing Redeemer (1423)

Artistic legacy

Through Fra Angelico's pupil Benozzo Gozzoli's portraiture and technical style in the art of fresco we see a link to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was commissioned by the wealthy patrons of Florence, and through Ghirlandaio to his pupil Michelangelo and the High Renaissance.

When Michelangelo took up the Sistine Chapel commission, he was working within a space that had already been extensively decorated by other artists. Around the walls the Life of Christ and Life of Moses were depicted by a range of artists including his teacher Ghirlandaio, Raphael's teacher Perugino and Botticelli.

Within the cells of San Marco, Fra Angelico had demonstrated that painterly skill and the artist's personal interpretation were sufficient to create memorable works of art, without the expensive trappings of blue and gold. In the use of the unadorned fresco technique, the clear, bright pastel colours, the careful arrangement of a few significant figures and the skillful use of expression, motion and gesture, Michelangelo showed himself to be the artistic descendant of Fra Angelico. Frederick Hartt describes Fra Angelico as "prophetic of the mysticism" of painters such as Rembrandt, El Greco and Zurbarán.^[15]

Vasari praised Fra Angelico: "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety." ^[6]

Works

Virgin and Child with Saints, detail, Fiesole (1428–1430)

Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1432 )

Early works, 1408–1436

Unknown

• Saint James and Saint Lucy Predella, five panels, tempera, c. 1426 to 1428

Rome

• The Crucifixion, panel, c. 1420–1423, Metropolitan Museum, New York.^[27] Possibly Fra Angelico's only signed work.^[28]

Oxford

• The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Magdalen. early 1420s. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Purchased from a private collection in November 2024.^[29]

Cortona

• Annunciation, c. 1430, Diocesan Museum, Cortona

Fiesole

• Coronation of the Virgin, altarpiece with predellas of Miracles of St Dominic, Church of San Domenico, Louvre, Paris
• Virgin and Child between Saints Thomas Aquinas, Barnabas, Dominic and Peter Martyr, altarpiece, San Domenico, 1424
• Christ in Majesty, predella, National Gallery, London.

Florence, Basilica di San Marco

• Dormition of the Virgin, 1431^[30]

Florence, Santa Trinita

• Deposition of Christ, altarpiece, National Museum of San Marco, Florence.
• Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1432, Uffizi, Florence
• Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1434–1435, Louvre, Paris

Florence, Santa Maria degli Angeli

• Last Judgement, Accademia, Florence

Florence, Santa Maria Novella

• Coronation of the Virgin, altarpiece, Uffizi.

San Marco, Florence, 1436–1445

• Altarpiece for chancel – Virgin with Saints Cosmas and Damian, attended by Saints Dominic, Peter, Francis, Mark, John Evangelist and Stephen. Cosmas and Damian were patrons of the Medici. The altarpiece was commissioned in 1438 by Cosimo de' Medici. It was removed and disassembled during the renovation of the convent church in the seventeenth century. Two of the nine predella panels remain at the convent; seven are in Washington, Munich, Dublin and Paris. Unexpectedly, in 2006 the last two missing panels, Dominican saints from the side panels, turned up in the estate of a modest collector in Oxfordshire, who had bought them in California in the 1960s.^[31]

The Deposition from the Cross, Museo San Marco

The Madonna enthroned with Saints Cosmas and Damian, Saint Mark and Saint John, Saint Lawrence and three Dominicans, Saint Dominic, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Peter Martyr; San Marco, Florence

• Altarpiece? – Madonna and Child with Twelve Angels (life sized); Uffizi.
• Altarpiece – The Annunciation
• San Marco Altarpiece
• Two versions of the Crucifixion with St Dominic; in the Cloister
• Very large Crucifixion with Virgin and 20 Saints; in the Chapter House
• The Annunciation; at the top of the Dormitory stairs. This is probably the most reproduced of all Fra Angelico's paintings.
• Virgin Enthroned with Four Saints; in the Dormitory passage

Coronation of the Virgin medallion, 1450s

In The Annunciation, the interior reproduces that of the cell in which it is located.

Each cell is decorated with a fresco which matches in size and shape the single round-headed window beside it. The frescoes are apparently for contemplative purposes. They have a pale, serene, unearthly beauty. Many of Fra Angelico's finest and most reproduced works are among them. There are, particularly in the inner row of cells, some of the less inspiring quality and of the more repetitive subject, perhaps completed by assistants.^[15] Many pictures include Dominican saints as witnesses of the scene each in one of the nine traditional prayer postures depicted in De Modo Orandi. The friar using the cell could place himself in the scene.

• The Adoration of the Magi
• The Transfiguration
• Noli me tangere
• The Three Marys at the Tomb.
• The Road to Emmaus, with two Dominicans as the disciples
• The Mocking of Christ
• There are many versions of the Crucifixion

Late works, 1445–1455

Orvieto Cathedral

Three segments of the ceiling in the Cappella Nuova, with the assistance of Benozzo Gozzoli.

• Christ in Glory
• The Virgin Mary
• The Apostles

Niccoline Chapel

The Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, at the Vatican, was probably painted with much assistance from Benozzo Gozzoli and Gentile da Fabriano. The entire surface of the wall and ceiling is sumptuously painted. There is much gold leaf for borders and decoration, and a great use of brilliant blue made from lapis lazuli.

• The Life of St Stephen
• The Life of St Lawrence
• The Four Evangelists.

Discovery of lost works

In September 2006 two works by Angelico were identified in a private collection in Oxford. The owner, Jean Preston, had inherited them from her father, who had bought them for £100 in the 1960s.^[32] Preston had recognised them as high-quality Florentine Renaissance, but did not realize that they were works by Angelico until they were identified in 2005 by Michael Liversidge of Bristol University.^[33] The works are two of eight side panels of the San Marco Altarpiece, produced in 1439 and later separated by Napoleon's army.^{[citation needed]} While the centre section is still held in San Marco, the other six side panels are in German and US museums. The Italian Government had hoped to purchase them but they were outbid at auction on 20 April 2007 by a private collector for £1.7M.^[32] Both panels are now restored and exhibited in the San Marco Museum in Florence.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of Italian painters
• List of famous Italians
• Early Renaissance painting
• Poor Man's Bible
• Fray Angelico Chavez – Franciscan friar, historian and artist who was named after Fra Angelico due to his interest in painting
• Western painting

Footnotes

1. Finocchio, Ross (2006-10-01). "Fra Angelico (ca. 1395–1455) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2026-01-08.
2. "Who was Fra Angelico? | USCCB". www.usccb.org. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
3. "Metropolitan Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 2008-01-22.
4. Werner Cohn, Il Beato Angelico e Battista di Biagio Sanguigni. Revista d'Arte, V, (1955): 207–221.
5. Stefano Orlandi, Beato Angelico; Monographia Storica della Vita e delle Opere con Un'Appendice di Nuovi Documenti Inediti. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1964.
6. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists. Penguin Classics, 1965.
7. Williamson, Beth (2018). Fra Angelico: Heaven On Earth. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Paul Holberton Publishing. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-911300-39-7.
8. Rossetti 1911, pp. 6–7.
9. "Gherardo Starnina". Artists. Getty Center. Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-28.Getty Education[]
10. Gordon, Dillian; Wyld, Martin; Roy, Ashok (2002). "Fra Angelico's Predella for the High Altarpiece of San Domenico, Fiesole" (PDF). National Gallery Technical Bulletin. London: National Gallery Company. ISBN 1-85709-941-9. ISSN 0140-7430. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
11. Rubin, Patricia (2004). "Hierarchies of Vision: Fra Angelico's "Coronation of the Virgin" from San Domenico, Fiesole". Oxford Art Journal. 27 (2): 137–153. ISSN 0142-6540.
12. Papini, Roberto. "ANGELICO, il Beato (Enciclopedia Italiana – 1929)" [Angelico, The Blessed]. Trecannioo (in Italian). Retrieved 9 December 2025.
13. Norwich, John Julius (1990). Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Arts. USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 16. ISBN 978-0-19-869137-2.
14. "Fra Angelico Paintings, Bio, Ideas". The Art Story. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
15. Frederick Hartt, A History of Italian Renaissance Art, (1970) Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0-500-23136-2
16. "Strozzi, Zanobi". The National Gallery, London. Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
17. Rossetti, William Michael (as attributed) (18 March 2016). "Fra Angelico". orderofpreachersindependent.org. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
18. The tomb has been given greater visibility since the beatification.
19. De Nicola, G. "Iscrizioni romane relative ad artisti o ad opere d'arte". Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria (31): 219–128, esp. 222.
20. Rossetti 1911, p. 7.
21. Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret (1999). John Paul II's Book of Saints. Our Sunday Visitor. p. 156. ISBN 0-87973-934-7.
22. Martyrologium Romanum, ex decreto sacrosancti oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Ioannis Pauli Pp. II promulgatum, editio [typica] altera, Typis Vaticanis, A.D. MMIV (2004), p. 155 ISBN 88-209-7210-7
23. "Giotto | National Gallery of Art". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2026-02-21.
24. Zuffi, Stefano; Hyams, Jay; Seppi, Giorgio; Pauli, Tatjana; Scardoni, Sergio (2003). The Renaissance: 1401-1610: the splendor of European art. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 978-0-7607-4200-6. OCLC 53441832.
25. Cite error: The named reference Vasari2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
26. Paolo Morachiello, Fra Angelico: The San Marco Frescoes. Thames and Hudson, 1990. ISBN 0-500-23729-8
27. The Crucifixion in the online databank of the MET.
28. Ross Finocchio in an essay on Fra Angelico at The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History in 2006.
29. Cooper, Donal, "Acquisition of the Year" Apollo, December 2025, pp. 60-61.
30. "Dormition of the Virgin". on WikiArt.org
31. "San Marco Altarpiece". Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
32. Morris, Steven (20 April 2007). "Lost altar masterpieces found in spare bedroom fetch £1.7m". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
33. Morris, Steven (14 November 2006). "A £1m art find behind the spare room door". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-09-28.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rossetti, William Michael (1911). "Angelico, Fra". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–8. Rossetti's article includes an assessment of the body of work, from the pre-Raphaelite viewpoint.
• Hood, William. Fra Angelico at San Marco. Yale University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-300-05734-8
• Morachiello, Paolo. Fra Angelico: The San Marco Frescoes. Thames and Hudson, 1990. ISBN 0-500-23729-8
• Frederick Hartt. A History of Italian Renaissance Art, Thames & Hudson, 1970. ISBN 0-500-23136-2
• Giorgio Vasari. Lives of the Artists. first published 1568. Penguin Classics, 1965.
• Donald Attwater. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. Penguin Reference Books, 1965.
• Luciano Berti. Florence, the city and its Art. Bercocci, 1979.
• Werner Cohn. Il Beato Angelico e Battista di Biagio Sanguigni. Revista d'Arte, V, (1955): 207–221.
• Stefano Orlandi. Beato Angelico; Monographia Storica della Vita e delle Opere con Un'Appendice di Nuovi Documenti Inediti. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1964.

Further reading

• Nathaniel Silver (ed.), Fra Angelico: Heaven on Earth, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 2018
• Gerardo de Simone, Il Beato Angelico a Roma. Rinascita delle arti e Umanesimo cristiano nell'Urbe di Niccolò V e Leon Battista Alberti, Fondazione Carlo Marchi, Studi, vol. 34, Olschki, Firenze 2017
• Cyril Gerbron, Fra Angelico. Liturgie et mémoire (= Études Renaissantes, 18), Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2016. ISBN 978-2-503-56769-3;
• Gerardo de Simone, "La bottega di un frate pittore: il Beato Angelico tra Fiesole, Firenze e Roma", in Revista Diálogos Mediterrânicos, n. 8, Curitiba (Brasil) 2015, ISSN 2237-6585, pp. 48–85 – http://www.dialogosmediterranicos.com.br/index.php/RevistaDM
• Gerardo de Simone, "Fra Angelico: perspectives de recherche, passées et futures", in Perspective, la revue de l'INHA. Actualités de la recherche en histoire de l'art, 1/2013, pp. 25–42
• Gerardo de Simone, "Velut alter Iottus. Il Beato Angelico e i suoi 'profeti trecenteschi'", in 1492. Rivista della Fondazione Piero della Francesca, 2, 2009 (2010), pp. 41–66
• Gerardo de Simone, "L'Angelico di Pisa. Ricerche e ipotesi intorno al Redentore benedicente del Museo Nazionale di San Matteo", in Polittico, Edizioni Plus – Pisa University Press, 5, Pisa 2008, pp. 5–35
• Gerardo de Simone, "L'ultimo Angelico. Le "Meditationes" del cardinal Torquemada e il ciclo perduto nel chiostro di S. Maria sopra Minerva", in Ricerche di Storia dell'Arte, Carocci Editore, Roma 2002, pp. 41–87
• Creighton Gilbert, How Fra Angelico and Signorelli Saw the End of the World, Penn State Press, 2002 ISBN 0-271-02140-3
• John T. Spike, Angelico, New York 1997.
• Georges Didi-Huberman, Fra Angelico: Dissemblance and Figuration. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1995. ISBN 0-226-14813-0 Discussion of how Fra Angelico challenged Renaissance naturalism and developed a technique to portray "unfigurable" theological ideas.
• J. B. Supino, Fra Angelico, Alinari Brothers, Florence, undated, from Project Gutenberg
• Povoledo, Elisabetta, "Reuniting the Great Works of the Patron Saint of Artists: A new exhibition in Italy puts the spotlight on Fra Angelico, whose reputation for piety vied with his undeniable artistic talents." The New York Times, September 22, 2025. Article about Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco exhibit.
• Farago, Jason, "Fra Angelico and the Miracle of Faith Made Visible" The New York Times, October 8, 2025. Review of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco exhibit.
• Rowland, Ingrid D. "Painted Sermons" New York Review of Books, February 26, 2026. Review of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco exhibit and its catalog.
• Silver, Nathaniel, "Angels' delight" Apollo, January 2026, p. 87. Review of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco exhibit.

External links

• Fra Angelico – Painter of the Early Renaissance
• Fra Angelico in the "History of Art" Archived 2012-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
• Ross Finocchio, Robert Lehman Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Fra Angelico Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 26, 2005 – January 29, 2006).
• "Soul Eyes" Archived 2008-12-03 at the Wayback Machine Review of the Fra Angelico show at the Met, by Arthur C. Danto in The Nation, (January 19, 2006).
• Fra Angelico, Catherine Mary Phillimore, (Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1892)
• Frescoes and paintings gallery Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Italian Paintings: Florentine School, a collection catalog containing information about the artist and his works (see pages 77–82).
• "From September 26, 2025, to January 25, 2026, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco present Fra Angelico...."