Blessed Fra Angelico, Patron of Artists, and Model for Those who Would Paint Christ

In honor of Fra Angelico's Feast day Just Past on February 18

Saint Dominic Adoring the Crucifixion. 1442. By Fra Angelico. Basilica di San Marco, Florence, Italy

From the Fra Angelico article in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907, he was born in Fiesole, and he took the name of John (Giovanni) when he joined the Dominican order. "In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One); the common English name Fra Angelico means the 'Angelic friar.'" 

The Dominicans are also known as the Order of Preachers, which is why O.P. is often appended to his name: Fra Angelico, O.P.

He was popularly called Blessed Angelico for centuries before John Paul II beatified him officially on October 3, 1982. How many other painters have been beatified? I can't think of any. 

Vasari wrote of him that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."

According to an essay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, “Fra Angelico pioneered many of the stylistic trends that distinguish the early Renaissance, including the rational treatment of pictorial space and the volumetric modeling of forms with light and shadow. . . ."

"Fra Angelico's prior said to the other Dominicans, 'His art is going to preach long after your words fade away.' He shows us the power of beauty to spread the Gospel: may our lives radiate this same beauty and draw others to Christ. "- Fr. Michael Hurley, O.P., Pastor at St. Dominic's Catholic Church, San Francisco

"Blessed Fra Angelico visited by angels." By Paul-Hippolyte Flandrin. 
1894. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

"He was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should be with Christ. It is averred that he never handled a brush without fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion."—Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 9