When studying these paintings it is important to remember that Fra Giovanni was an equally talented and remarkable muralist. This is proof that Fra Angelico was not an illuminator who gradually took on larger works. His superiors would have used a miniaturist to illustrate choir-books.
Later, they might have only temporarily asked Angelico to illustrate manuscripts, but no work of this genre can be attributed to him with certainty. It will soon be seen that even though he possessed a naturally delicate technique, he was not a miniaturist. It can be concluded that his true calling started and stayed with larger paintings. It is true that the conscientious finish of his paintings, particularly his predella paintings, which are often reminiscent of miniatures, has easily led scholars to draw erroneous conclusions. It is a small leap to affirm that a painter capable of treating small details with such love and precision must have also created works destined to be examined as closely as the images of precious manuscripts. But opinions of this nature are usually based on studies of paintings from recent centuries. It is too often forgotten that the great masters of the Middle Ages were accustomed to finishing their paintings down to the minute details, and that the paintings themselves were often of exceptionally reduced dimensions. Those who see a miniaturist in Fra Giovanni, based on the precious delicacy of his predella paintings, ought to draw the same conclusion from Duccio’s paintings. On the reverse side of his Maestà altarpieces and their predellas (Christ Entering Jerusalem) the scale of Duccio’s work is much smaller than that of the characters portrayed on the front of the altarpieces. They ought go even further, and classify nearly all of the Italian masters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as miniaturists.
In terms of technique, painting on parchment was considerably different from painting on panels or plaster. Miniaturists formed, with calligraphers, a group that was completely distinct from that of painters. This question will be brought up again in deciding whether Fra Benedetto was a miniaturist, and whether he helped his brother paint murals and altarpieces.
18. Duccio di Buoninsegna, Christ Entering Jerusalem (detail of the Maestà altarpiece), 1308–1311. Tempera on wood panel, 100 × 57 cm. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.
19. Birth of Saint Nicholas, His Vocation, The Gift to Three Young Girls (first panel of “Scenes of the Life of Saint Nicholas”, predella from the polyptych of San Domenico of Perugia), c. 1437. Tempera on wood panel, 34 × 60 cm. Pinacoteca, Vatican.
Stay and Work in Fiesole
20. The Virgin of Humility, c. 1436–1438. Tempera on wood panel, 74 × 61 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
21. Bernardo Daddi, The Virgin and Child in Majesty Surrounded by Angels and Saints (San Pancrazio polyptych), 1336–1340.Tempera on wood panel, central panel 165 × 85 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
On January 22, 1414, Cardinal Dominici solemnly joined the Council of Constance, and on July 4, he presided, as Pope Gregory XII’s delegate, at the Council’s opening. Gregory XII’s abdication and the election of Martin V put an end to the schism that had divided the Church, and also ended the exile of Fra Giovanni del Mugello and his fellow Dominican friars from Fiesole. The energetic intervention of the influential Cardinal Dominici caused the Bishop of Fiesole to return the convent he had taken from the Dominicans.
In 1418, the Dominicans joyously returned to their cherished home, where Fra Angelico would spend the next 18 years of his life. The monastery had been built on the mountainside where the Etruscans once founded ancient Fiesole, a picturesque site that dominated the Arno valley. In Roman times, new inhabitants established themselves on the plain. Florence grew imperceptibly until the time of Fra Angelico, the height of its power. This prosperity was due to Cosimo de’Medici, who was given the title of “Founding Father” by the town council. An imposing cathedral was erected in the centre of Florence and was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV.
Beginning in 1421, Brunelleschi worked on its dome, and in 1439 the monument was witness to the solemnities of the great Council of the Union. Next to the cathedral, a bell tower started by Giotto in 1334 was finished with a colourful three-dimensional decoration. Before the bell tower stands the ancient baptistry. Its marvelous North Doors were started in 1403 by Ghiberti, and the third and most beautiful set of doors had been under construction since 1425 (The Gate of Paradise). Inside the church, Donatello collaborated with Michelozzo on the monumental tomb erected by Cosimo de’ Medici in memory of Pope John XXII, who died in 1419.
Behind the cathedral, and dominating the countryside, rose the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, begun by la Signoria. In 1432, Michelozzo built a magnificently ornamented, colonnaded courtyard in the donjon-crowned Palazzo.
Situated between the Cathedral and the Palazzo Vecchio, the Or san Michele Chapel (St Michael in Orto) was finished in 1412. At that time, the facade of this edifice was decorated with a series of slightly larger than life-sized statues of the patron saints of the town’s guilds. These superb statues were the work of the sculptors Donatello, Ghiberti, and Michelozzo. Around 1350, Andrea Orcagna and his colleague Bernardo Daddi erected inside the chapel a precious marble altar topped by a ciborium.
From his convent in Fiesole, Fra Angelico could see Florence’s Santa Maria Novella, a church with three naves begun in 1278 by the Preaching Friars Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro, known as the best Italian architects of their time. On more than one occasion, Fra Angelico must have prayed in the Rucellai family chapel before the great Madonna by Cimabue (The Santa Trinità Madonna) that was carried and triumphantly placed this sanctuary, to the people’s acclaim, in 1280. In the chapel across the transept, that of the rich Strozzi family, he must have frequently felt enlightened at the sight of the fresco painted by Giotto’s disciples. He not only studied these paintings, but also borrowed many images from them, especially from the paintings of Paradise and Hell, created by Andrea and Bernardo Orcagna in the middle of the fourteenth century (the altarpiece Christ in Glory Among the Saints or The Last Judgment).
In the church’s Chiostro Verde (green cloister) the primitively fresh colouring and intense effect sought by Angelico can be seen in the green camaieu murals of scenes from the Old Testament. In the Spanish chapel (Capellone degli Spanguoli) are found the resplendent riches and brilliant colours of works depicting the Passion and Glorification of Christ, the Legends of Saint Dominic, and Saint Peter Martyr, as well as “The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas.” These works must have spoken to the heart of the young monk. It is possible that Simone Martini painted part of these paintings around 1330, but they probably interested Angelico less, for they already show the influence of the same movement that Lorenzetti (Presentation in the Temple) followed with his allegories painted in Siena. The young Angelico had no taste for passionate and bustling scenes, clashing contrasts, and spiritual allusions. The exact representation of men, the material things of daily life, and terrestrial struggles and agitation did not interest him. A sincerely religious painter, he wished, above all, to remain faithful to the teachings of Lorenzo de Ripaffata, an associate of Dominici who instructed Angelico during his novitiate. Angelico found his inspiration in meditation, his pious familiarity with prayer, in Christ, Mary, and the locally venerated saints. His best and most emotional works were conceived during his contemplation. It was for this reason that he loved to meditate upon the celebrated and reputedly miraculous image of the Visitation in the church of the Holy Annunciation, Santissima Annunziata. He felt attracted to this painting by a deep love for the Mother of God that conformed to the spirit of the Dominican order. His most beautiful paintings are devoted to Mary.
To the left of the Duomo, the young artist witnessed the construction of Santa Croce, the powerful church of the Franciscan Order. Started for the Franciscans by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1294, it was not finished until 1442. In its chapels, Giotto painted the Coronation of the Virgin, the lives of the two Saint Johns, and the Legend of Saint Francis, (The Legend of Saint Francis, Saint