The story of an extraordinary artist who was much more than a painter.
On 25 March every year, when we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, many people, trying to imagine what could have happened during the momentous event, would see, in their mind’s eye, this famous painting. It shows the angel Gabriel announcing the good news to the Virgin Mary. It was painted by someone who will soon be a saint. Blessed Fra Angelico was born in Tuscany, Italy, around 1395. His parents named him Guido di Pietro. Guido, who took to painting from an early age, became a mendicant Dominican Friar, taking the name of Giovanni (John). Fra is a contraction of ‘Frater’ which is Latin for ‘Brother.’ He belonged to the community at Fiesole, near Florence, and therefore he was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni of Fiesole. It was his exemplary life that earned him the surname ‘Angelico.’ So his name, Fra Angelico, means ‘the Angelic Friar.’
After living for ten years at Cortona, Fra Angelico was assigned in 1436 to the newly built friary of San Marco in Florence. This move placed him at the centre of artistic activity of the region. A nobleman called Cosimo de Medici, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Florence, offered him generous financial support and urged him to paint in the friary, where he had a cell reserved for himself. It is here that Angelico came up with the masterpiece ‘Annunciation’ at the top of the stairs leading to the cells. Many other smaller frescoes on events in the life of Christ adorned the walls of each cell in this friary. The remarkable luminous quality of all his paintings impressed everyone.
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Fr M A Joe Antony SJ
