Chapter 1

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

FRA ANGELICO

BY

J. B. SUPINO

TRANSLATED

BY

LEADER SCOTT.

FLORENCE

ALINARI BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.

1902.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Printed by Barbéra--Alfani and Venturi, proprietors Florence.

* * * * *

INDEX.

Beato Angelico--Proem Page 5

I.--Fra Angelico at Cortona and Perugia (1409-1418) 29

II.--Fra Angelico at Fiesole (1418-1436) 55

III.--Fra Angelico at Florence (1436-1445) 93

San Marco 95

In the Gallery of Ancient and Modern Art 131

IV.--Fra Angelico at Rome and Orvieto (1445-1455) 155

Index to the Illustrations 179

Tradition shows us Fra Giovanni Angelico absorbed in his work, and either caressing with his brush one of those graceful angelic figures which have made him immortal, or reverently outlining the sweet image of the Virgin before which he himself would kneel in adoration. Legend pictures him devoutly prostrate in prayer before commencing work, that his soul might be purified, and fitted to understand and render the divine subject; and again in oration after leaving his easel, to thank heaven for having given him power to make his holy visions visible to other eyes.

But has tradition any foundation in fact? Why not? Through his numberless works we may easily divine the soul of the artist, and can well understand, how the calm and serene atmosphere of the monastic cell, the church perfumed with incense, and the cloister vibrating with psalms, would develop the mystic sentiment in such a mind.

And can we disregard tradition in face of such humility of life, such beauty of work, exquisite refinement of feeling, and sweetness of expression!

Among all the masters who have attempted to imbue the human form with the divine spirit, he is perhaps the only one who succeeded in producing pure celestial figures, and this with such marvellous simplicity of line, that they have become the glory of his art.

Whether it be the Virgin enthroned amidst groups of cherubim sounding heavenly trumpets, or Christ blessing the just and driving away sinners; whether the martyrs supporting their torments with superhuman resignation, the apostles preaching the gospel, or angels free in the air and chanting celestial glories; the same spirit is in them all--at once intense, devout, and utterly pure, in which the fervent believer and the true artist are inseparably blended.

The reason is, that Fra Giovanni put into his work the flame of an overpowering passion; under his touch features were beautified, and figures animated with a new mystic grace. He threw himself entirely into his art which thus became the spontaneous expression of his soul. "It was the custom of Fra Giovanni," says Vasari, "to abstain from retouching or improving any painting once finished. He altered nothing, but left all as it was done the first time, believing, as he said, that such was the will of God. It is also affirmed that he would never take his pencil in hand until he had first offered a prayer. He is said never to have painted a crucifix without tears streaming from his eyes, and in the countenances and attitudes of his figures it is easy to perceive proof of his sincerity, his goodness, and the depth of his devotion to the religion of Christ."[1]

How this devout mind, full of the figurative sacred writings then current, must have overflowed with visions, ecstasies and miracles! And what tremors of awe must he have felt, in putting these visions into colour! His Madonnas, their features suffused with candour and humility, bend with maternal grace hitherto unwitnessed, in loving contemplation of the Son, or--mothers in glory--they bow to receive the homage of the Redeemer. His saints ecstatically gaze at luminous celestial apparitions; his golden winged angels dance lightly beneath the throne of their Lord or sound merrily the most various instruments, singing: _laudate Dominum..., laudate eum in sono tubæ, laudate eum in psalterio et cithara, laudate eum in timpano et choro..._; or else with their fair curly heads downcast they reverently worship the divine majesty. What a feast of light and colour is in these panels, gleaming with azure and gold like a hymn to religion and faith!

"We know from him how the pious imagination of the men of his time pictured the Kingdom of Heaven, with the angels, saints, and blessed ones, and on this account alone his pictures would have been of extraordinary importance in the history of religion. Not to love Fra Angelico would mean to lack the true sentiment of ancient art, for though we recognize the pious _naïveté_ of the monk, there is in the heavenly beauty of his figures, and the joy of youthful faith which animates the artist, a charm unequalled in the whole history of Art!"[2]

Whether Fra Angelico ever actually had a master, it is impossible to ascertain. There are critics who affirm that if anyone initiated him in art, imbuing him with his own sentiment and style, it might have been the Camaldolese monk Lorenzo Monaco; but Cavalcaselle justly observes that between Angelico and Lorenzo Monaco there only exists that affinity which in coetaneous artists results from community of thought, social conditions, and religious sentiments. Two monks like the Camaldolese and the Dominican might well show the same ideas, without implying a relation of master and scholar between them.[3]

Both critics and historians, however, agree in the assertion that he began his career in art by illuminating codices and choral books. Baldinucci and Rosini judge that his master in painting was the Florentine Gherardo Starnina, whom Lanzi designates as "a painter of life-like style." But Padre Marchese refuting this opinion observes that "not to mention Vasari's silence on the matter, the fact is very doubtful, because Gherardo passed many years in Spain, and returning to his native land died in 1403, when little Guido of Mugello[4] was only 16 years old, an age which scarcely admits of the first steps in Art."[5] But the date of Starnina's death is now corrected and proved to have been in 1408, so, taking into account the character of our artist's works, nothing need now be opposed to the theory that Fra Giovanni may have profited by the teaching of that master, while living in Florence after his return from Spain; besides it is not proved whether that journey to Spain was ever really taken. Historians, it is true, tell us that Starnina, being obliged to leave Florence after the Ciompi riots (1378), took refuge in Spain, where he lived several years; but it is certain that in 1387 his name was inscribed in the Guild of Florentine painters.[6]

Vasari does not doubt that Fra Angelico, like other artists from Masaccio onwards, acquired his skill by studying the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel;[7] but besides the fact that the style of those pictures is diametrically opposed to Fra Angelico's, the latter could not possibly have been in Masaccio's school, for as he was born in 1387, he was fifteen years older than Masaccio and already a proved master, when the Carmine frescoes were being painted. Fra Angelico's style is so individual and characteristic, that it might rather be considered as springing from his own disposition, developed under the influence of his time. Studying the works left in Florence by his great predecessors, leading a retired life, and purifying every idea, every inspiration in the fire of religion, Angelico was enabled, by meditation, to perfect the models of the best artists of the "trecento", among whom we should opine that the influence of Orcagna in his frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel of S. M. Novella, was greater even than that of Giotto. Indeed it is evident that what Orcagna began, is carried to the highest development in Fra Angelico, who combined softness and refinement with severity of form, grace of expression with nobility of attitude.

The figure of the Virgin in the fresco of the Judgment in the Strozzi Chapel, so grand and majestic in its simplicity, is again recognisable in the panels of Fra Angelico, imitated with his own especial character and spiritual feeling, full of grace and humility, the soft lines breathing beauty and lightness. The saints who appear to be actually in celestial repose, have also inspired Fra Giovanni; the same gentle and contemplative expression which irradiates the features of the elect is again visible in our painter's figures. In the colouring of both, vivacity is combined with softness, and vigour of chiaro-scuro goes together with transparency of tint.

Nevertheless it is true that in certain respects, Fra Angelico might be said to belong to the same school as Masolino. They are, however, at the antipodes from each other in sentiment and artistic interpretation, for while the saintly Giovanni endeavoured to idealize the human figure and render it divine, Masolino, like most of his contemporaries, followed a style distinctly realistic; yet it may be proved that in technique, both followed the same rules, and worked on similar principles. In fact the similitude between the two painters noticeable in their composition, softness of outline, lightness of figures, and clear harmonious colouring, tends to confirm the great artistic affinity which we have indicated. Both of them used rosy tints in the flesh, with greenish and yellowish shadows, both recall the older artists of the "trecento" in the perspective, which is often incorrect, and out of proportion. But how far superior is Fra Angelico when the work of both in its full aspect is compared!

Fra Angelico has, it is true, conventional forms, and there is a certain sameness in his heads with their large oval countenances; the small eyes, outlined round the upper arch of the eyebrow, and with a black spot for pupils, sometimes lack expression, or have a too monotonous one, and the iris is often lost in the white of the cornea; his mouths are always drawn small with a thickening of the lips in the centre, and the corners strongly accentuated; the colour of his faces is either too pink or too yellow; the folds of the robes (often independent of the figure, especially in the lower part) fall straight, and in the representations of the seated Virgin expand on the ground, as if to form the foot of a chalice. But in his frescoes these faults of conventional manner almost entirely disappear, giving place to freer drawing, more life-like expression, and a character of greater power.

We will not repeat with Vasari that Fra Giovanni perfected his art from the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel; but we do not doubt that he too felt the beneficent influx of the new style, of which Masaccio was the greatest champion, and that he followed it, leaving behind, up to a certain point, the primitive giottesque forms. There is in his art, the great mediæval ideal rejuvenated and reinvigorated by the spirit of newer times. Being in the beginning of his career, as is generally believed, only an illuminator, he continued, with subtle delicacy and accurate, almost timid design, to illuminate in larger proportions on his panels, those figures which are often only parts of a decorative whole. But in his later works while still preserving the simplicity of handling, and the innate character of his style, he displays a new tendency, and learns to give life to his figures, not only by the expression of purity and sweet ecstasy, but in finer particularization of form and action which he reproduces in more material style.

His clear diaphanous transparency of colouring is not used from lack of technical ability, but to approach more nearly to his ideal of celestial and divine visions, and succeed in a species of pictorial religious symbolism.

In the midst of his calm and serene compositions Fra Angelico has figures in which a healthy realism is strongly accentuated; figures drawn with decision, strong chiaro-scuro and robust colouring, which show that he did not deliberately disdain the progress made in art by his contemporaries. Indeed we should err in believing that Fra Angelico was unwilling to recognize the artistic developments going on around him, and the new tendencies followed by his eminent neighbours Ghiberti, Brunelleschi and Donatello. It was not so; but he only profited by the movement as far as he deemed possible without losing his own sentiment and character; thus giving a rare example of self-knowledge.

Perhaps he divined that if he had followed the new current too closely, it would have carried him farther than he wished to go; that the new manner would have removed him for ever from his ideal; in a word, that too intense study of the real, would have diminished or entirely impeded fantasy and feeling. He instinctively saw these perils, and therefore kept himself constant to his old style, and while perfecting himself in it, he still remained what he always had been, and what he felt he should be.

Though constrained to repeat to excess the usual subjects, too traditionally drawn, "he often," as Burckhardt writes, "understood how to avoid in the features of his saintly personages that aspect of abstract impersonality, which had hitherto marked them, and to animate them with delicate and individual life. He succeeded in giving a new character to the time-honoured types used in preceding artistic representations. To prove this it is sufficient to cite the St. John Baptist--one of Fra Angelico's finest creations."

He modifies the traditional type of Christ according to his own faith and feeling. Deriving it from Giotto, with improvements gathered from Orcagna, he excels both masters, impressing on it a divine character, and giving to the face of the Man God a sweet gentleness which is truly sublime. These qualities reach the highest grade in the "Coronation of the Virgin" at the Convent of San Marco, and in the picture at Pisa[8] where the Saviour is represented standing upright, in the act of blessing with his right hand, while in the uplifted left he holds a golden cup.

He is represented full face, in all his majesty, his features of an exquisite sweetness and nobility,--a grand figure, which has all the seduction of a vision, such as our Dominican alone could conceive and design.

As he could, in a manner no one had ever done before, give to the figure of the living Christ the expression of infinite goodness, ready for sacrifice; so in his Crucifixions, instead of following the example of his contemporaries, who depicted Christ already dead, with marks of sorrow on His features, and contorted by the spasm of a violent death; he represented Him living, calm and serene, conscious of the sacrifice He completed, and full of joy in dying for man's salvation.

The type of the Virgin, too, though its characteristic construction of features, and short and receding chin, are derived from the Sienese masters, especially from Lorenzetti, in Fra Angelico responds to an artistic idealization chosen by him as approaching more the divinity of her person. The flowing robes of the Virgin show her long and refined hands, but beneath that mantle he draws no feminine figure nor can one even guess at it. All the power of the artist is concentrated in her face

umile in tanta gloria, (humble in such great glory)

on which the artist has impressed such candour, and so lively an expression of ineffable grace, that one is involuntarily moved to devotion.

The divine child with its golden curls, full and sunny face, wide open and sparkling eyes, is in the pictures at Cortona and Perugia depicted with rosy fingers in the act of blessing; in the "Madonna della Stella" He embraces His mother so closely that He almost hides Himself in her bosom; in the great azure-surrounded tabernacle of the Linen Guild, He is smiling; while in the fresco of the corridor at San Marco, He has an ingenuous wondering gaze as He holds forth His little hand,--an expression so natural that it shows a happy grafting of ideal representation, on a conscientious and close study of the real.

Full of character, too, are the heads of his old people, with flowing beards and severe aspect, and those of his saints and martyrs, which were evidently either young novices of the convent, contemporary brethren, or elder companions in the faith, portrayed with sapient and ingenuous realism. But the figures which most brilliantly display his genius, are those diaphanous angels, robed in flowing tunics, resplendent with gold, and of infinite variety. While admiring that multitude of celestial creatures, who praise, sing and dance around the radiant Madonnas, how can we doubt that they have visited his cell, and that he has lived with them in a fraternal and sweet familiarity?[9]

Even when he has to represent scenes of passion, Fra Angelico mitigates the violence of action with softness of sentiment, for anger and disdain never entered his soul; and in their place he prefers to reproduce one character alone in all his figures with their gentle expression. It is his own character, with its angelic goodness of heart, which he incarnates in the divine beauty of all these celestial beings. As in name and art, so in real life he was truly "angelic," for he spent his whole time in the service of God, and the good of his neighbour and the world.

"And what more can or ought to be desired, than by thus living righteously," says Vasari, "to secure the kingdom of heaven, and by labouring virtuously, to obtain everlasting fame in this world? And, of a truth, so extraordinary and sublime a gift as that possessed by Fra Giovanni, should scarcely be conferred on any but a man of most holy life, since it is certain that all who take upon them to meddle with sacred and ecclesiastical subjects, should be men of holy and spiritual minds....

"Fra Giovanni was a man of the utmost simplicity of intention, and was most holy in every act of his life.... He disregarded all earthly advantages; and, living in pure holiness, was as much the friend of the poor in life as I believe his soul now is in heaven. He laboured continually at his paintings, but would do nothing that was unconnected with things holy. He might have been rich, but for riches he took no care; on the contrary, he was accustomed to say, that the only true riches was contentment with little. He might have commanded many, but would not do so, declaring that there was less fatigue and less danger of error in obeying others, than in commanding others. It was at his option to hold places of dignity in the brotherhood of his Order, and also in the world; but he regarded them not, affirming that he sought no dignity and took no care but that of escaping hell and drawing near to Paradise. And, of a truth, what dignity can be compared to that which should be most coveted by all churchmen, nay, by every man living, that, namely, which is found in God alone, and in a life of virtuous labour?

"Fra Giovanni was kindly to all, and moderate in all his habits, living temperately, and holding himself entirely apart from the snares of the world. He used frequently to say, that he who practised the art of painting had need of quiet, and should live without cares or anxious thoughts; adding, that he who would do the work of Christ should perpetually remain with Christ. He was never seen to display anger among the brethren of his order; a thing which appears to me most extraordinary, nay, almost incredible; if he admonished his friends, it was with gentleness and a quiet smile; and to those who sought his works, he would reply with the utmost cordiality, that they had but to obtain the assent of the prior, when he would assuredly not fail to do what they desired. In fine, this never-sufficiently-to-be-lauded father was most humble, modest, and excellent in all his words and works; in his painting he gave evidence of piety and devotion, as well as of ability, and the saints that he painted have more the air and expression of sanctity than have those of any other master."[10]

Fra Giovanni Angelico, whose worldly name was Guido or Guidolino (little Guy), was born in the year 1387; his father was named Piero (surname not known) of Vicchio in the Mugello;--that pleasant valley which boasts of having given birth to Giotto.

Vasari asserts that Guido's brother Benedetto, a miniaturist, was also very clever in a larger style of painting, but the researches of Milanesi quite refute this opinion, and show that Benedetto did nothing more than copy choral books, and that he continued this kind of work till his death.[11]

"The most ancient chronicles of the convent of St. Mark and St. Dominic at Fiesole," writes Milanesi when registering the death of Fra Benedetto brother of Angelico, in the year 1448, "remark simply that he was a very good writer, and that he wrote and annotated the choral books of St. Mark and some of those of St. Dominic." We have only the evidence in Vasari and the "Annali del Convento di San Marco," written after his Lives of the Painters to prove that he was a miniaturist.[12]

In these Annals it is added, with more historical truth, that although Angelico "might have conveniently lived in the world, and besides his own possessions might have gained any income he chose, with the art for which he was famous even in his youth, yet, for his own satisfaction and peace, being by nature steady and good, and chiefly also for the salvation of his soul he preferred to take the vows in the order of the Preaching monks."[13] This happened in 1407.

On the slopes of the smiling hill of Fiesole the foundations of a new convent were being laid by Giovanni Dominici, the great preacher and reformer, who wished in this new monastery to give a model to all the cloistered orders which at the close of the preceding century had greatly fallen from their ancient observances. St. Antonino was among the first to embrace this reform, and after two years Guidolino and his brother followed his example, choosing the robes of St. Dominic.

On being received by the Dominicans they were sent to Cortona, where St. Antonino and others already resided, there being as yet no novitiate at the Fiesole convent. In 1408 they took the irrevocable vows, but it cannot be ascertained whether they still remained at Cortona, or returned at once to their own convent at Fiesole. If the latter, the two brothers must have been involved in the vicissitudes of the Fiesolan convent, which, refusing to acknowledge Pope Alexander V. (who was elected by the Council of Pisa 1409), entered into a fierce contest with the archbishop of Florence. The convent was abandoned by its inmates who fled to Foligno to avoid the rule of Fra Tommaso da Fermo, General of the Order, who had sworn obedience to the new Pope. They were received as guests at Foligno by Ugolino de' Trinci, lord of the city, and Federigo Frezzi, author of the _Quadriregio_. Here they passed five years, being treated with great benevolence by their brethren, nor did they leave until driven away by the plague in 1414, when they again took shelter at Cortona where they remained till 1418.

When Guidolino entered the convent and took the name of Giovanni, he must have been already expert in art; for the vicissitudes which followed could certainly not have facilitated the study of painting. In fact his works which remain at Cortona are in so youthful a style, and bear the imprint of such freshness as to remove all doubt on this generally accepted assertion.