FRA ANGELICO. The Carmine Church in Florence, where Fra Angelico in 1417 entered the St Nicholas Company whose members were mainly painters.

Transcription

1 St Nicholas seal..ll St Nicholas News From Fr. Gerardo Cioffari, o.p. director of the Centro Studi Nicolaiani 22 October 16, 2 Year 1107 March 15, 2014 A paper sent free to the St Nicholas friends all around the world, by Fr Gerardo Cioffari, o.p., director of the St Nicholas Research Center in Bari (gcioffari@libero.it) SAINT NICHOLAS IN THE ART OF 61 FRA ANGELICO THE PERUGIA TRIPTYCH At the center: The Virgin with the Child; at left: St Dominic and St Nicholas; at right: St John the Baptist and St Catherine. Many episodes of the life of St Nicholas are painted on the predella. The triptych is in the National Gallery of Perugia, with the exception of two paintings of the predella, that are in the Vatican Pinacoteca. 1

2 FRA ANGELICO Fra Angelico was born in Vicchio del Mugello around the year The date of his birth is very controversial. Some scholars, like Tito Centi is for the traditional 1387, while others, like W. Cohn e St. Orlandi argue in favor of the year Today is preferred the Certainly October the young artist went to the Carmine Church in Florence to ask for membership in the Company of St. Nicholas of Bari, a confraternity founded in 1334 especially for painters, under the spiritual guidance of the Carmelites. Probable Fra Angelico s portrait by Luca Signorelli. Detail from The fall of the Antichrist (c. 1501) in Orvieto Cathedral, Italy. In the inscription document (Florence State Archives, Compagnie, n. 1549,, f. 18 r, n. 507, edited by Werner Cohn, Il Beato Angelico e Battista Sanguigni, in Rivista d Arte, vol. 30, L. S. Olschki, Firenze 1955, pp , in particular doc. I, p ) he is registered this way: Frate Guido di Piero, painter of the people of St Michael Bisdomini has been reveived by our Company in October , accompanied by Battista di Biagio a brother of ours, at the time of our rectors Christopher of Lotto, Donatus of Aldobrando, Nicholas of Arrigo. He has become a friar of the Order of St Dominic. The Carmine Church in Florence, where Fra Angelico in 1417 entered the St Nicholas Company whose members were mainly painters. The Company included among the brothers the card. Giovanni Dominici, who was the successor of Raymond of Capua as leader of the Dominican Reform mouvement. He obtained particular indulgences in favor of the St Nicholas Company (Florence State Archives, Compagnie, quoted above, f. 15 v ) and this Company inscribed him July The Dominican historians (I. Taurisano, T. Centi, S. Orlandi, E. Marino, V. Alce), taking into account that this same Dominici was the 2

3 founder of the Fiesole St Dominic s Monastery, where later Guido di Pietro entered, speak of Dominici as spiritual master of Fra Angelico. Fra Angelico s artistic training included miniature, and some of his works are preserved till today. The first painting that reached us seems to be the Fiesole Altarpiece (1425) in St Dominic s Church. Here he lived since 1421 as observant friar with the new name of fra Giovanni (brother John). In the year 1428 he was ordained priest. Although he belonged to the observant Dominican Congregation, superiors allowed him to participate in the city artistic life. For example, in 1434 he was called to give his opinion on the right value of a painting made by Bicci di Lorenzo and Stephen of Anthony for the church of St Nicholas Oltrarno. Light and gold are Fra Angelico s means to convey religious mysticism. Here: Annunciation Altarpiece. Museo Diocesano of Cortona (Italy). In 1438, when the new monastery of St Mark (under the patronage of Cosimo dei Medici) was ready to receive the observant brothers, many Friars (and Fra Angelico among them) from Fiesole went to St Mark. This happened while the other Dominican monastery, Santa Maria Novella, not belonging to the Reform movement, hosted the famous Council of Florence (1438/39). To this period are to be ascribed the Crucifixion (with St Dominic at its foot) and the Transfiguration in St Mark. While engaged in the artistic creativity, he acted also as Prior s vicar and even as administrator of St Mark s monastery in Florence (1443). Florence. San Niccolò d Oltrarno, oggi It was in these years that he carried out some of his beautiful and famous Annunciations. In this monastery executed a great number of frescos, probably with the help of disciples like Benozzo Gozzoli. These frescos reveal the mature stage of his art, without any excess in the decorations, in order to concentrate himself on the figures, that show the influence of Masaccio. Here already is present the light, that someone has called metaphysical, as well as the presence of the golden color that show his personal interpretation of reality. 3

4 Love for his religious Order can be noticed for the presence of Dominican figures in all the sacred stories. He was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. On his sarcophagus was put this inscription: Hic iacet Venerabilis pictor Frater Johannes de Florentia Ordinis Praedicatorum (Here rests the venerable painter brother John of Florence of the Order of the Preachers). In Latin is also written: Don t give me praise as to a second Apelles, but for having donated to yours, o Christ, all that I earned. Some works shall remain on the earth, others will be in the heaven. Gave birth to me, John, the city that is the flower of Etruria. Coronation of the Virgin. Florence. Uffizi (detail). Summoned to Rome by pope Eugene IV in 1447, he lived in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The frescos executed in St Peter were already destroyed at the time of Jules II, while well preserved are those of the Niccoline Chapel. This same year, for several months he and his workshop were active in Orvieto, then he was back to Rome to bring to an end the paintings of the Niccoline Chapel. In 1450 he returned to Florence, and while there, he was elected Prior (that is head of that community) in the monastery of St Dominic in Fiesole. He was again in Rome between 1453 and 1454, probably after another Pope s invitation. Here he died the 18 th of February of the year Guido di Piero, afterwards brother John of Fiesole, is known to History as Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic) or (in English) Fra Angelico. Vasari, in his Lives of Artists, called him this way. Pope John Paul II gave a formal seal to the people voice. He put him in the Catalogue of the Blessed, declaring him patron saint of painters the 3 rd of October of the year

5 FRA ANGELICO AND ST NICHOLAS Fra Angelico met St Nicholas already in his youth, because at the beginning of his activity he entered the Florence Company of the Painters, that had as its patron Saint St Nicholas of Bari. Later he went again in contact with the Saint while showing him in several artistic different situations. He painted him full figure in his Episcopal vestment as well as in at least seven episodes of his life. The most ancient picture of the Saint seems to be a panel that some scholars have connected with the Fiesole Altarpiece. Saint Nicholas in the Fiesole Altarpiece. Pillars: St. Mark and St Mattew, both in Chantilly, Musée Condé. Saint Nicholas and St Michael, both were in Sheffield, collection rev. Hawkins-Jones. Fra Angelico s second St Nicholas is the bishop that faces backwards at the forefront of the Louvre Altarpiece (1430), showing the Coronation of the Virgin. Easy identification: the three balls at his feet. The Fiesole Altarpiece, 1430 This first image of St Nicholas is not to be found in the Altarpiece as it is now, but it was one of the four dismembered on the pillars. It was the scholar Pope Hennessy to establish its connection with this altarpiece. Some words behind the painting helped its identification. The Louvre Altarpiece, St Nicholas is standing here at left. Poggi and Douglas-De Nicola ascribed equally to Fra Angelico the Crucifixion with St Nicholas and St Francis, recently restored in the church of St Niccolò del Ceppo in Florence. Like the Carmine church, St Niccolò del Ceppo hosted a St Nicholas Company or Fraternity. 5

6 According to other scholars the work could be of his workshop. Crucifixion, with St Nicholas and St Francis in St Niccolò del Ceppo church. Florence. San Niccolò del Ceppo, interior. At the death of Lorenzo Monaco in 1425 the decoration was entrusted to Fra Angelico. Therefore it is not too easy to distinguish what belongs to the first painter and what to the latter one. The predella, that was commissioned by lady Palla Strozzi, with scenes from the life of St Onuphrius and St Nicholas, is today in the Gallery of the Academy. It shows the Saint saving a ship of pilgrims going to his church. It is attributed mainly to Lorenzo Monaco than to Fra Angelico. San Niccolò del Ceppo, Florence. It should be mentioned the Altarpiece of the church of Santa Trinità in Florence. This altarpiece was first moved to the Academy, and afterwards to St Mark Museum, where is to be found even today. It was painted around 1421 by Lorenzo Monaco, to whom was entrusted the decoration of the Strozzi Chapel in the church s sacristy. Miracle of St Nicholas saving his pilgrims. Predella of the Altarpiece of Santa Trinità painted by Lorenzo Monaco and carried through by Fra Angelico. 6

7 THE PERUGIA TRYPTICH The Perugia Tryptich is a large Altarpiece executed by Fra Angelico in 1437/1438 in the Chapel of St Nicholas in St Dominic s church of Perugia. Commissioner of the work according to many scholars was the city bishop Guidalotti, having his family the Chapel patronage. In the XIXth century the Altarpiece was dismembered and transferred in St Orsula Chapel (in the same church). In 1901 the scholar Weisbach attributed the predella to Pesellino. A thesis that was accepted by few specialists, like Collobi Ragghianti in the scholars and art historians agree that the author of the entire predella is Fra Angelico. The first of the three compartments (cm 34 x 60) is in the Vatican Pinacoteca. It shows three episodes from the life of the Saint: his birth, with the apocryphal episode of his standing in prayer in the basin, his listening to the word of God preached by a bishop, and the famous charitable action of giving the dowry to the three poor girls giving them the possibility of honest marriages. The second (central) compartment Predella of the Perugia-Tryptich with st Nicholas stories. From the left: 1. The Saint s birth; Listening of the word of God; Dowry to three poor girls; 2. Miracle of the grainships and saving of a ship full of pilgrims; 3. He saves three innocent men from beheading; his death. In 1967 Berti proposed the portuguese painter Juan Consalvo. But today all the (equally in the Vatican Pinacoteca) shows the meeting of St Nicholas with the captains of ships carrying grain from Alexandria. 7

8 He succeeded convincing them to leave a quantity of grain in Myra where people were suffering a famine. When the grain was weighed in Constantinople no lack of it was found. Right on the background St Nicholas saves a ship in danger. The third compartment (same dimensions) is exhibited in the National Gallery of Umbria. It shows on the left the Saint s intervention to save three innocent men from the beheading sentenced by the corrupted governor Eustatius. On the right is the death of the Saint. The young St Nicholas is listening to the preaching of the word of God. Here it is a better vision of the three episodes of the first compartment: St Nicholas birth. In the darkness of the night Nicholas throws bags of money into the house of three poor girls for their dowry. 8

9 Here there are the two episodes from the second compartment, that is the central one: The first one shows the grainships that from Alexandria landed in the port of Myra, where people were struck by a famine. Saint Nicholas convinced the captain to leave sufficient grain to satisfy the people s hunger and for the sowing of the next year. When the grain was weighed in Constantinople, its weight was the same as it was at its departure from Alexandria. This miracle was largely known in the merchant world. Right on the background the Saint saves a ship of pilgrims. 9

10 The third and last compartment shows the most ancient and well documented episode of the Saint s life: the first part of the Praxis de stratelatis. While talking with three Roman officers in order to restore peace among people of the harbor of Myra (Andriake), St Nicholas learns from some citizens that three innocent men are about to be beheaded following a death sentence by the governor. In spite of his age, St Nicholas hastily goes back to Myra and crossing streets and places finally reaches the hill of Berra, where condemned people were sentenced to death. He takes the sword from the executioner and throws it away. Afterwards goes to the governor and sharply reproaches him. The second episode is the saintly death of the holy Bishop. The date is uncertain. Probably between 335 and 337. Notwithstanding the liveliness of colors, Fra Angelico tries to render the reality and drama of the situations. He shows the historical St Nicholas with his great concern for the flock given to him by God. Figures are real, as for example the men unloading the grain; his spurt to stop the executioner, the lament of those who assist to his death, the cripple near his bed. All the scenes are inserted in vivid architectonic perspective, among houses and landscapes. 10

11 FROM BARI GREETINGS TO ALL ST NICHOLAS FRIENDS 11