It is a commonplace, but nonetheless true, that the best-known artists are often the least understood. Generations of admirers cultivate an impression of the artist and his works that is frequently anecdotal and rarely revised or questioned, even though it may have been formu-lated in a period in which the biases and preferences were different from our own. So it has long been with Fra Angelico, who was among the earliest--if not the very first--Italian Renaissance painters to be restored to the canon of greatness after centuries of neglect in the English-, French-, and German-speaking world.

It is a commonplace, but nonetheless true, that the best-known artists are often the least understood. Generations of admirers cultivate an impression of the artist and his works that is frequently anecdotal and rarely revised or questioned, even though it may have been formu-lated in a period in which the biases and preferences were different from our own. So it has long been with Fra Angelico, who was among the earliest--if not the very first--Italian Renaissance painters to be restored to the canon of greatness after centuries of neglect in the English-, French-, and German-speaking world. Much of the nineteenth-century revival of interest in the Pictor Angelicus was founded upon the very evident and very powerful spiritual content of his paint-ings: legend described him as a humble and saintly friar who never picked up his brushes without praying first, and who shed tears whenever he painted a crucifix. This is the image of Fra Angelico that reigned in the popular imagination up through the time of the last (and only) monographic exhibi-tion dedicated to the artist--held in Florence in I955, to com- memorate the fifth centennial of his death in I455--and that may still be found in textbooks and studies published more recently. Indeed, although he had long been known as the Blessed Angelico--Beato Angelico, in Italian--his official beatification by Pope John Paul II in I984 was the climax of a movement that began almost immediately after the artist's death and that could be said to have gathered nothing if not momentum over the succeeding five hundred years.

Sponsor's Statement

Director's Foreword

Acknowledgments

Lenders to the Exhibition

I. FRA ANGELICO: THE EARLY WORKS

(ABOUT I4IO--2I) Laurence Kanter

CATALOGUE I--4 Laurence Kanter

II. PILGRIMS AND DESERT FATHERS:

DOMINICAN SPIRITUALITY AND THE

HOLY LAND Pia Palladino

CATALOGUE 5--9 Pia Palladino, Victor M. Schmidt,

  Laurence Kanter

III. A VELVET REVOLUTION:

FRA ANGELICO'S HIGH ALTARPIECE

FOR SAN DOMENICO IN FIESOLE

Anneke de Vries

CATALOGUE 1O--12 Laurence Kanter

IV. FRA ANGELICO: A DECADE OF

TRANSITION (1422-32) Laurence Kanter

CATALOGUE 13--27 Laurence Kanter, Pia Palladino

V. FRA ANGELICO: ARTISTIC MATURITY

AND LATE CAREER (1433-55) Laurence Kanter

  CATALOGUE 28--33 Laurence Kanter, Pia Palladino

VI. THE FRESCOES BY FRA ANGELICO

AT SAN MARCO Magnolia Scudieri

  CATALOGUE 34--35 Laurence Kanter

VII. FRA ANGELICO: A FLORENTINE

PAINTER IN "ROMA FELIX"

Carl Brandon Strehlke

  CATAf.OGUE 36--39 Laurence Kanter, Pia Palladino

VIII. BATTISTA DI BIAGIO SANGUIGNI

AND ZANOBI STROZZI Laurence Kanter

  CATALOGUE 40--51 Laurence Kanter, Pia Palladino

IX. FRANCESCO DISTEFANO, CALLED

PESELLINO Laurence, Kanter

  CATALOGUE 52--56 Laurence Kanter

X. GIOVANNI DI CONSALVO AND THE

MASTER OF THE SHERMAN PREDELLA

Laurence Kanter

  CATALOGUE 57--58 Laurence Kanter

XI. BENOZZO GOZZOL! (BENOZZO DI

LESE DI SANDRO) Pia Palladino

  CATALOGUE 59--61 Pia Palladino

Appendix

Bibliography

Index

Photograph Credits