The style of Fra Angelico

For Fra Angelico, painting must illustrate the scenes of the Gospel, teach with images and contribute to the salvation of souls.

The golden light that invests its figures has a mystical value: it is an expression of divine grace that saves man and for this reason it cheers up the soul.

Throughout his life he painted sacred subjects: Annunciations, Passion scenes, enthroned Madonnas and saints.

Yet it introduces a touch of realism in these solemn compositions, the figures appear concrete and solid and recall the style of the great artist Masaccio.

We must think that Beato Angelico lives on the border between two eras: the fourteenth century, a century in which the medieval tradition that exalts precious fabrics and uses golden backgrounds is still alive, and the fifteenth century during which the culture of the Renaissance is affirmed and in painting Realism and the rules of perspective triumph.

Angelico is affected by both tastes and styles.

This is clearly seen in the paintings for the altars where the main figures, the saints and the Virgin, have late-Gothic characteristics, while the scenes painted on the base describe episodes from the life of the saints with settings that represent glimpses of the Florence of the time, with the buildings in perspective and the characters dressed in fashion (Renaissance characteristics).

Fra Angelico adapts the style according to the public for which he paints: rich and precious works for the faithful, severe for the friars of his convent, solemn for the Pope and the curia of Rome.

Convinced that faith can save man, he describes the beauty of Creation with a soft light to arouse the wonder of the faithful.

But when he frescoes the cells of the friars in the convent of S.

Marco in Florence his tone becomes severe, the details are reduced to the essentials or transformed into symbols and the colors become dark.

The frescoes describe episodes of the Passion of Christ and with their drama they invite to meditation and repentance.

Angelico paints the cross, the nails, the spear, the tomb, the risen Christ and inserts in each scene a friar in prayer as a witness to an ever-present event.

The fame of Beato Angelico also reaches Rome, where he works for popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V and where, influenced by the solemn ceremonials of the Vatican court, he adopts an elegant style and a celebratory tone, also determined by the classic tradition of the city.