Fra Angelico. Stephan Beissel

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      Förster rightly remarks that, of all the old Italian painters, Fra Giovanni Angelico is perhaps the last that one would expect to successfully surmount the difficulties of the theme he treats in this painting: the feat of painting the drama of the descent from the cross, emphasizing at once the material weight of the body and the bitter pain of the characters in the scene. Yet, the artist, his temperament so removed from a naturalist outlook, victoriously accomplishes this task. His Deposition from the Cross is superior to the others painted before, and even afterwards, including Daniele da Volterra’s famous frecoes in Trinità dei Monti. In his work, Angelico manages to surpass his natural lyricism to achieve all of the drama’s expressive power. Without weighing us down with the physical energy expended in the scene, he arrestingly places us in the middle of its dramatic action. While making us witness to great suffering, he tempers this suffering with the sublime and expressive beauty. The presence of greatness and saintliness is so striking that any feeling of pain eventually melts into reconciliation and resigned sadness. To this can be added the sweet and lifelike movement, the intense pain without softness, and in such a way that contemplating the work appeases and calms the soul.

      The clarity of its motives, the beauty of its lines, the harmony of its oppositions, and the subtle transitions emphasize this impression.[10] Montalembert remarks, “The day that Fra Angelico painted this, he must have felt such an overabundant love of God, such immense and ardent contrition. How he must have meditated and wept on the suffering of our divine Master in the depths of his cell! Each brushstroke, each emphasized line seems filled with the regret and love from the depths of his soul. What poignant preaching from a painting! Where others see just a work of art, I sense I have drawn ineffable consolations and profound instruction.”[11]

      The master’s merits are even more striking if one compares this Deposition from the Cross with the Deploration of Christ of the Brotherhood of Santa Croce del Tempio, (The Deploration of Christ), mentioned earlier in this chapter. In the earlier work he still seems to follow the path of Giotto’s oldest disciples. In the Deposition from the Cross of Santa Trinità however, he innovates by establishing a happy equilibrium between what seem to be mutually exclusive qualities: the truthful imitation of nature, the rules of balance, and the expression of faith. In the earlier painting Christ’s lifeless body is stiff and immobile; in the later painting it is the object of multiple actions rendering it movement. In the earlier painting there is one group of figures and one feeling expressed; in the later work of art there are three groups showing many different actions and expressions. In The Deploration of Christ of Santa Croce del Tempio the cross rises vertically, its crossbar touching the upper edge of the frame. The city wall extending in the distance seems to correspond with the monotony of a single grouping. The three groups in The Deposition from the Cross of Santa Trinità call for a varied background. In the two works, Mary Magdalene kisses Christ’s feet, but the crown of thorns and nails abandoned on the ground in one are the object of religious devotion in the other. The way in which the men show and contemplate them clearly reveals what they are saying. In The Deploration of Santa Croce del Tempio nearly everybody is kneeling or seated, in The Deposition of Santa Trinità the figures are found in a variety of positions. In the following chapter, we will discuss The Deposition and Lamentations of San Marco.

      33. Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven (predella of the altarpiece of San Domenico in Fiesole), 1423–1424. Tempera on wood panel, 31.7 × 73 cm. The National Gallery, London.

      34. Madonna and Child with Saints Dominic and Thomas Aquinas, 1424–1430. Fresco, 196 × 187 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Peterburg.

      The same subject is treated with more simplicity in the thirty-five compositions painted on eight panels that formed the doors of the treasury at the Santissima Annunziata in Florence (Illustration) which are found today in the Galleria dell’Accademia. Rio dates this work after 1450 due to the portrait of Michelozzi that he claims to see. The generally shared opinion is that these panels were painted in Fiesole, and therefore before 1436. The best paintings in this group are: The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Magi, The Flight into Egypt, The Resurrection of Lazarus, The Payment of Judas, The Prayer in Gethsemane, and Christ at the Column. The panel showing The Marriage at Cana, The Baptism of Christ, and The Transfiguration, cannot be considered the work of Fra Angelico. Even The Deposition, The Ascension, and The Last Judgment should probably be attributed to his students, though the entire cycle forms an ensemble.

      The border of each of these paintings shows a text from the Old Testament above and a text from the Gospels below. The influence of the tradition that inspired “The Poor Man’s Bible” (Biblia Pauperum) is visible in these paintings, and it would be useful to briefly examine them and their inscriptions from the point of view of Christian iconography.

      1. A sort of preface, this composition represents faith’s written sources and brings together ancient prototypes. Three concentric circles are painted in a square frame. This layout results in four sections: the area outside of the circles and a large wheel enclosing a second smaller wheel. Inside the smaller wheel are the authors of the New Testament: the four Apostles who wrote the Epistles holding banners upon which texts are written, and between them, the four Evangelists. Each of the Evangelists holds a book to his chest, and has his evangelical symbol in the place of his head. In the larger wheel, Angelico painted twelve authors of the Old Testament. At the top is Moses between David and King Solomon, followed by the four “major Prophets” and five of the “minor Prophets”. Jonas is characterised by a fish he holds in his hand. In the bottom corners outside of the wheels are Ezekiel to the left, and Saint Gregory the Great to the right. Between them spreads a banner, which reads Flumen Chobar, for it was on the banks of the Chobar River that the prophet Ezekiel saw the four evangelical animals. In the upper corners of the painting are texts taken from the Book of Ezekiel (1:4) and the homilies of Saint Gregory on Ekekiel’s vision. (See Hom. 2 et 3 in Ezechiel, Opoera ed. Cong. S. Mauri, 1705, I.)

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