"Art manifests whatever is most exalted, and it manifests it toall"—TAINE
FRA ANGELICO
A SKETCH
BY
JENNIE ELLIS KEYSOR
Author of "Sketches of American Authors"
EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
BOSTON
NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO
"The art of Angelico, both as a colorist and a draughtsman, isconsummate; so perfect and so beautiful that his work may be recognizedat a distance by the rainbow-play and brilliancy of it: however closelyit may be surrounded by other works of the same school, glowing withenamel and gold, Angelico's may be told from them at a glance, like somany huge pieces of opal among common marbles."
—JOHN RUSKIN.
"The light of his studio came from Paradise."
—PAUL DE ST. VICTOR.
"His world is a strange one—a world not of hills and fields and flowersand men of flesh and blood, but one where the people are embodiedecstasies, the colors tints from evening clouds or apocalyptic jewels,the scenery a flood of light or a background of illuminated gold. Hismystic gardens, where the ransomed souls embrace and dance with angelson the lawns outside the City of the Lamb, are such as were nevertrodden by the foot of man in any paradise of earth."
"Fra Angelico's Madonnas are beings of unearthly beauty, and words failto convey any idea of their ineffable loveliness and purity. His angelstoo are creatures of another sphere, and purer types have never yet beenconceived in art. The drawing of the hands of his angels and Madonnas ismost exquisite—charming in tender yet subtle simplicity of outline."
—TIMOTHY COLE.
Copyrighted, 1900, by EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING Co.
FRA ANGELICO
FRA ANGELICO.
1387—1455.
Let us for a few moments turn our attention to a monastery a shortdistance from Florence. From its elevated position on the hills whichskirt the vale of the Arno it commands a panoramic view of the "LilyCity." It is the time when the Renaissance is virgin new to the world.Faith was still so real and living a thing that men and women shutthemselves up from the world in order to live holy lives and devotethemselves entirely to the service of God.
It is a body of such men on the heights of Fiesole that interests us.They are Dominican monks, of the order of great preachers, founded longago by St. Dominic. Over long white robes the brothers, or frates, asthey are called, wear black capes and back from their tonsured headsfall hoods, which protect them in inclement weather. It is a prosperousmonastery surrounded by goodly fields. In some, the olive groves blossomin the spring-like snow, or wear foliage of richest green as theseason advances. In others, the yellowing grain waves in the uplandsummer breeze. The monks are busy people, many without in the fieldstilling the fruitful soil or gathering in the abundan