Blessed Fra Angelico

Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395 — 18 February 1455), known posthumously as Fra Angelico , was a Dominican friar and painter active during the early Florentine Renaissance. Angelico created a series of frescoes for the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence, where he received the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici. His works include the San Marco Altarpiece and the Deposition of Christ, both made for the convent of San Marco. Painting exclusively religious subjects throughout his career, Angelico completed commissions in Rome under the patronage of Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V. Angelico was a pioneer of the artistic trends that came to distinguish the early Renaissance, namely linear perspective and a greater attention to depth and form than had been practised in the late Medieval period. Angelico was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. In 1984, John Paul declared him the patron of Catholic artists. He was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole ("Friar John of Fiesole"), reflecting the town where he joined the Dominican order, and Fra Giovanni Angelico ("Angelic Brother John"). In modern Italian, he is referred to as Beato Angelico ("Blessed Angelic One") following his beatification by Pope John Paul II. Fra Angelico was born around 1395 in Mugello, near Fiesole in Tuscany. He was baptised Guido di Pietro and had a younger brother named Benedetto. The earliest known record of him is dated 17 October 1417, when he joined a religious confraternity or guild at the Carmine Church under the name Guido di Pietro. Payments made to Guido di Pietro in January and February 1418 for work at the church of Santo Stefano del Ponte in Florence indicate that he was already working as a painter. By 1423, Angelico had joined the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole. Following the custom of adopting a new name upon entering a religious order, he adopted the name Fra Giovanni (Friar John).