Commentary on Fra Angelico's Works by Art Historian Federica Muzzarelli

Dear friends, my name is Federica, I am an Italian student and I'm here to share with you some impressions from my visit to the Artangelico exhibition currently on display in Florence. The Artangelico lived at the beginning of the 15th century in Florence, that is exactly the time and place where the Renaissance began. An extraordinary time, art history, and a great time of change. The Artangelico led the transition from the medieval to Renaissance art and the way it reacts to these novelties is very personal. I'm going to share some pictures with you. The first one is just to give you a taste of his art, it is the deposition from the church of Santa Trinita in Florence. The overall impression from his works is one of the profusion of colours, light and beauty, and a sense of order and balance. Each figure is designed to fill the space harmoniously and there is no space, no room for negative emotions, even in scenes depicting death, like in this case. Among all the beautiful works of art that can be at the exhibition, I chose to focus on a very small one, that is a painted reliquary. It means these objects were served to contain the relics of the saint. I'm showing it alongside another work, that is the Tabernacle of the Linen Workers, made for the man who worked linen, textile fibre. On the left is a huge work, it reaches the height of the first floor of the building. Despite the difference in size, these two works have much in common. The big one has doors, so it can be opened or closed, and when it is open, it gives the extraordinary opportunity to glimpse another dimension. It is like an epiphany. You can see paradise in higher centres. The small one has no doors, but can still be seen as a door or a window, an opening to another dimension. It's really impossible to convey the beauty of this big painting on a small screen. So let's focus on the small one. The space is divided in two, or better to say in three sections. In the lower part, there is the funeral of the Virgin, then the Assumption of the Virgin Mary carried by angels, then God who opens his heart to greet her. Let's watch in more detail. In the lower scene, we can see the dead body of Mary laying on a funeral bed. It is totally gilded. Mary is surrounded by the apostles, while Jesus is holding Mary's soul in the form of a child. The apostles are suffering, but we don't see negative emotions. Each one has his own features, his own way to react to what is happening. So here we see the body and the soul of Mary as two separate things. This is the human space, the earthly, the lower space, so the lower self. And then let's go higher. In the higher level, Mary is one. She's unified. The real self is one. And she's dressed in blue. She seems to be dressed in sky, sky full of stars. The angels, too many angels, have robes of the same colors, in the same color. And Mary seems also to be dressed in the sun. She radiates rays, rays of light all around her. She looks like the sun herself. This recalls of the apocalypse. The apocalypse speaks about a woman clothed in the sun. And in the representation of the assumption of Mary, there are often elements from the apocalypse, from the woman clothed in the sun, like the stars, or the rays of light, or sometimes the rainbow. Usually, Mary is carried by the angels. Now, in this case, we can see that they don't carry her. These four in the bottom seem just to look. They are just observers. Then there are six angels playing music at the top, and five angels on each side, so ten together, that seem to dance in circle. No one is actually carrying Mary. It seems on this level, on the higher level, there is no need to, no need for any effort. The paintings by Frangelico seem designed for a slow, prolonged viewing, to appreciate every detail, like the gestures of the angels that hold hands, or the nuance of the skin tone. Frangelico seems to say that nothing should be treated hastily or carelessly. These levels seem to be divided, but if we look closer, we can see that there is simply a wall dividing the lower space from that above. We can even see a garden behind the wall. So, everything is happening together, at the same time. These three levels coexist. This tender gesture of the angels can be found in other paintings by Frangelico, like in this case. Frangelico, as a conscious being, is in close touch with the sea influence, and what he tries to do is to connect the viewer to it. This is his task. For a long time, he was considered a conservative, almost backward artist, because his works still have a medieval flavor. In fact, he is aware of Renaissance innovations, and he applies them with absolute mastery. But the point is, he has no interest in appearing modern. His talent, his mastery of technique, his knowledge of Renaissance innovation, all this is used only to the extent that it serves his purpose. It is to celebrate and to communicate the divine. What he wants to communicate is almost impossible to express in words, and every conscious being seeks his own peculiar language to talk to the others, to talk to us. And this peculiar visual language is the one that Frangelico has developed for this purpose, this language made of beauty, attention, intentionality, that doesn't seem so far from the language that also our teacher uses. Thank you, dear friends, for your attention.