ely the name of the town where he
first took the vows; more often Fra Angelico. If we turn his compound
designation into English, it runs thus--"the Beatified Friar John the
Angelic of Fiesole." In his lifetime he was known no doubt simply as
Fra Giovanni or Friar John; "The Angelic" is a laudatory term which
was assigned to him at an early date,--we find it in use within thirty
years after his death; and, at some period which is not defined in
our authorities, he was beatified by due ecclesiastical process. His
baptismal name was Guido, Giovanni being only his name in religion. He
was born at Vicchio, in the Tuscan province of Mugello, of unknown
but seemingly well-to-do parentage, in 1387 (not 1390 as sometimes
stated); in 1407 he became a novice in the convent of S. Domenico at
Fiesole, and in 1408 he took the vows and entered the Dominican order.
Whether he had previously been a painter by profession is not certain,
but may be pronounced probable. The painter named Lorenzo Monaco may
have contributed to his art-training, and the influence of the Sienese
school is discernible in his work.

[v.02 p.0007]

According to Vasari, the first paintings of this artist were in the
Certosa of Florence; none such exist there now. His earliest extant
performances, in considerable number, are at Cortona, whither he
was sent during his novitiate, and here apparently he spent all the
opening years of his monastic life. His first works executed in fresco
were probably those, now destroyed, which he painted in the convent
of S. Domenico in this city; as a fresco-painter, he may have worked
under, or as a follower of, Gherardo Starnina. From 1418 to 1436
he was back at Fiesole; in 1436 he was transferred to the Dominican
convent of S. Marco in Florence, and in 1438 undertook to paint the
altarpiece for the choir, followed by many other works; he may have
studied about this time the renowned frescoes in the Brancacci chapel
in the Florentine church of the Carmine and also the paintings of
Orcagna. In or about 1445 he was invited by the pope to Rome. The pope
who reigned from 1431 to 1447 was Eugenius IV., and he it was who in
1445 appointed another Dominican friar, a colleague of Angelico, to
be archbishop of Florence. If the story (first told by Vasari) is
true--that this appointment was made at the suggestion of Angelico
only after the archbishopric had been offered to himself, and by
him declined on the ground of his inaptitude for