Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395^[1] – February 18, 1455), was an Italian Early Renaissance painter. Giorgio Vasari, who wrote the Lives of the Artists said he had "a rare and perfect talent".^[2]

Fra Angelico has been known by many different names. When he was born, he was called Guido di Pietro. People who knew him when he was older called him Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John from Fiesole). When Giorgio Vasari wrote about him in Lives of the Artists, in the 1500s, he was already known as Fra Giovanni Angelico (Brother Giovanni who is like an Angel).^[3]

The Italians usually call him il Beato Angelico (the Blessed Angelico). He has been called this for a long time, because he was thought to be blessed by God who gave him the talent of painting, and also because he was such a good and holy man.^[4] The name "Blessed Angelico" has now been made official, because in 1982 Pope John Paul II "conferred beatification" which means that he is now on the way to being made a saint.^[5]

Vasari says about him: "It is impossible to think of enough good things to say about this holy father, who was so humble and modest in everything that he did and said, and whose pictures were painted with such cleverness and holy faith."^[2]

1. ↑ Metropolitan Museum of Art
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, first published 1568. Penguin Classics, 1965.
3. ↑ Wellknown people in the Middle Ages and Renaissance were called by a name like this: Lorenzo the Magnificent, Richard the Lionheart, Pedro the Cruel
4. ↑ "Fra Giovanni Angelico - Biography and Gallery of Art". artist-biography.info. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
5. ↑ Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret (1999). John Paul II's Book of Saints. Our Sunday Visitor. p. 156. ISBN 0-879-73934-7.