France: Fra Angelico in Parishioner
Thirty-three photographs of Fra Angelico paintings (1387-1455) are exposed in the church Saint-Germain-des-Prés from July 7 to September 4, 2011. Verses from the Bible comment on each scene. The whole forms a strip including 33 photographic panels that reproduce and enlarge (145 cm x 145 cm), the paintings of the Armory of silver ex-votos that were realized by the Dominican monk and his workshop, between 1448 and 1453. These 40cm x 40cm paintings are conserved in the San Marco museum in Florence.
From September 23, 2011 to January 16, 2012, the Jacquemart-André Museum will consecrate an exposition to Fra Angelico, entitling it “Fra Angelico and the Masters of light”. Allying his heritage of the Gothic style with the new mastery of perspective – thanks to the painter Giotto –, Fra Angelico was the initiator of an artistic movement in Florence in the beginning of the 15th century, the “painters of light”. Around the 25 major works of the Tuscan religious, will be presented the works of painters that had an influence on his art, Lorenzo Monaco (1370-1424), Masolino da Panicale (1338 -about 1440) and Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), as well as of artists that he inspired, Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) or Zanobi Strozzi (1412-1468). Visitors can also discover the frescos from the cells of the convent of San Marco in Florence, thanks to a video shown at the entrance to the exposition.
Guido di Pietro entered the Dominican convent of Fiesole, on the heights of Florence, in 1408. He was then 21 years old and in religion became Fra Giovanni. But his contemporaries, because of the spirituality of his painting and the profusion of angels in his works, nicknamed him Fra Angelico. (sources: cef/musee-jacquemart-andre – DICI#238, July 16, 2011)
