(ANSA) - New York, October 24 - Renaissance genius and patron saint of artists Fra Angelico is set to wow New York with the first major American exhibition of his work .
The Metropolitan Museum has combed 50 collections all over the world to serve up 75 works by the master and several more by his pupils. The show spotlights Angelico's pellucid, ethereal altar panels, his otherworldly Madonna and Childs and the intricate decorativeness of his smaller works.
He was born Guido di Pietro, at Vicchio, in the Tuscan province of Mugello, near Florence towards the end of the 14th century, of unknown but seemingly well-to-do parentage, and was baptized Guido or Guidolino (friars used to change their name when entering the orders). Still a young boy he asked for admittance at the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole, where Dominican friars were known for their rigid rules (and were called "the Observers"). He completed his novitiate in Cortona in 1408 and became a real Dominican monk in Fiesole about 1418 with the name of "Fra Giovanni da Fiesole"; "The Angelic" is a laudatory term which was assigned to him at an early date and which we find in use within thirty years after his death, but was not properly beatified until 1984.
Whether he had previously been a painter by profession is not certain, but appears probable. The painter Lorenzo Monaco may have contributed to his art training, and the influence of the Sienese school is discernible in his work. He had several important charges in the convents he lived in, but this did not limit his art, that very soon became famous. He had the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici. According to Vasari, the first paintings of this artist were in the Certosa of Florence; none such exist there now.
from Wikipedia
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