SAN MARCO – FLORENCE – Marquis Paris

The Convent of San Marco in Florence contains the true pictorial treasures that are the frescoes of Fra Angelico.

Born between 1387 and 1395, Fra Angelico was a Dominican monk and painter, known for his qualities of humanity and humility but also for his “rare and perfect talent” according to Vasari – a talent that is fully expressed in his works of moving religiosity.

His paintings combine the medieval artistic values – its didactic function and the mysticism of light, with the pictorial principles of the Renaissance – the establishment of perspective and the representation of the human figure.

The Convent of San Marco, which is a former Dominican convent from the 13th century, is rebuilt in 1438 by the architect Michelozzo. Around 1440, Cosimo de Medici entrusts Fra Angelico with the direction of the pictorial decoration of the convent and the individual cells of the monks. The first documented evidence of the painter’s presence in San Marco dates back to 22 August 1441, when he lives there alongside Fra Bartolomeo, also an artist and fresco painter.

The decoration includes a fresco in each cell illustrating an episode from the New Testament.

The period of execution of the pictorial works in San Marco is not known precisely, but it is generally placed between 1437-1438 and 1440-1441. Some of his works are later with no certain date – but they must have been completed in 1445, the year Fra Angelico leaves for Rome.

Much has been written about the attribution to Angelico alone of such a large number of works, completed in a relatively short time. The frescoes on the ground floor are unanimously attributed to him. Those in the forty-three cells and the three corridors on the first floor are more uncertain. Although his contemporaries, such as Giuliano Lapaccini, attribute all the frescoes to Fra Angelico, it is now estimated, by simple calculation of the time needed to complete this type of work and by stylistic studies highlighting three or four different hands, that Fra Angelico completed a limited number of frescoes, the others having been painted from his drawing or in his style by students.

Nevertheless, whoever is their author, the frescoes are striking in the simplicity and stripping down of their beauty, which has no other purpose than contemplation.

On a much darker note, the convent of San Marco also contains the cell of Savonarola, the preacher who brought down the Medici dynasty.