Part 4

The other predella at Cortona represents various episodes in the life of the Virgin:--the Nativity, Marriage, Visitation, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple, Death, Burial and lastly the apparition of the Virgin to the blessed Dominican Reginald of Orleans. Padre Marchese believes that this last scene did not originally belong to the predella; but the doubt is unfounded, for nothing is more natural than the artist's wish to connect the history of the Virgin with his Order, of which she is the patroness.

Cavalcaselle, as well as Marchese, affirms that the scene of the Marriage of the Virgin reproduces that of the picture in the Uffizi at Florence. This may be, as far as the subject and scene go, but in the disposition of the figures, the development of action, the two works have nothing in common. Of course in both there must be the priest who unites the bridal couple, and around them the usual personages in various attitudes of complaisance, surprise, and rejoicing, but the grouping of the figures in the predella at Cortona is more naturally conceived. The women on the right appear to come from the house where they had met to assist at the ceremony; the men stand on the left. The background with its portico, and the walls, above which the trees of a garden project, are shown with more truth and solidity. To give wider scope to the scene Fra Angelico has depicted the marriage in an open space. The picture in the Uffizi, on the other hand, is so conventional both in architecture and landscape that it is impossible to establish a comparison between the two.

The Visitation depicts the wife of Zacharias meeting the Virgin, and lovingly embracing her; a serving maid leaning against the threshold, half hidden by the door, is listening with devotion, while another woman kneels on the ground in the road raising her hands to heaven.

In the Adoration of the Magi we find the usual qualities of composition and feeling. One of the Kings has already rendered homage to the Redeemer, and is talking to St. Joseph, who thanks him with earnest devotion; and while the second falls prone before the divine Child, and kisses His feet with profound emotion, the third prepares himself to render the required homage. All around are elegant little figures of pages and servants, in life-like and natural attitudes.

The last story represents the Assumption of the Virgin, at which, according to ancient tradition, Christ is present and carries in his arms the soul of His mother in the form of a little child.

Padre Marchese wrote that both the Adoration and this Assumption are in every respect similar, or replicas of those in the Uffizi. If anything, the pretty little panels of the Uffizi might be replicas of the Cortona ones; but in Florence the only painting with the scene of the Adoration of the Magi is that in the predella of the tabernacle of the Linen Weavers' Guild. Now, while the Adoration in the Cortona predella is naturally and simply pourtrayed, that of Florence is conventional and stiff, the vacuity of some figures and their actions is very evident--therefore this similitude also reduces itself to mere identity of subject. The Assumption of the Virgin also offers very notable differences. The predella at Cortona is more intense and severe, more simple and hence more grand; while the little panel in the Uffizi shows that the effort to embellish the scene has been too much for the artist, and the intensity of sentiment is greatly lessened, being injured by useless accessories. In that of Cortona, on the contrary, the figures of the Apostles who hold the sheet on which the Virgin reposes are full of expression and natural in action, the steep and mountainous background has severe and grand lines, as if to emphasize the sadness of the scene. Here the artist felt and created, there he merely repeated himself.

The triptych, once on the great altar of the church of San Domenico, now at a side altar on the right, has the Virgin seated in the centre with the Holy Child upright on her knee, his right hand is raised in act of benediction, and with his left he holds a rose. Around the throne are four angels, one of which carries a basket of flowers. In the side panels are St. Matthew, St. John Baptist, St. John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene. Above in the central compartment of the triptych, is the Crucifixion and the two rounds on the sides represent the Annunciation.

In the Chapel of Sant' Orsola in San Domenico at Perugia there was formerly a panel picture now divided into many parts and much damaged. This was painted by Fra Giovanni for the Chapel of San Niccolo de' Guidalotti, and may now be seen in the Vannucci gallery at Perugia.

The Virgin is enthroned with her Son on her knees, His right hand in act of benediction, His left holding a half open pomegranate. At the foot of the throne four angels are standing back, the two first lift up a basket full of white and red roses, the others peep from behind the throne of the Virgin who turns lovingly to her little Son, who is entirely nude, and as rosy as the angels' flowers, and those in three vases at the foot of the throne. On the right of the Virgin are St. John Baptist and St. Catherine; on the left St. Dominic and St. Nicholas. On the predella, which is divided into three parts, were once various scenes from the life of St. Nicholas of Bari, two of these are now to be found in the Vatican Gallery. In a complex composition, they represent the birth of the Saint; his listening to the preaching of a bishop to a congregation of women seated in a flowery field; the Saint saving from dishonour the daughters of a poor gentleman; and the miracle of causing a hundred measures of wheat to rain down and relieve the famine in the city of Nuri. On the upper portion the Saint appears from behind a rock, having been invoked by some devotees to calm a tempest which threatened to wreck their bark.

The portion at Perugia represents the miraculous salvation of three innocent youths, sons of Roman princes; and the death and funeral of the Saint. In the lower part of the picture he is extended on the bier surrounded by monks, women and poor people who weep his loss, while above, his soul is being led to heaven by four angels. The frame of the painting is now divided into twelve fragments, each one containing a small figure of a Saint: they are St. Romuald, St. Gregory, St. Laurence, St. Bonaventure, St. Catherine, St. Peter Martyr, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Peter, St. Stephen, St. Paul and St. John. The last four figures have been mutilated in the lower part, and in these, as well as the others, the colouring is much injured. If it were desired to complete the altar-piece, at present, the gables of the tripartite frame would be missing, but there is no doubt that--as in the Cortona picture--the two small rounds in the Perugian Pinacoteca, representing the Angel of the Annunciation and the Virgin, on gold backgrounds, formed part. Padre Marchese places this panel among the youthful works of the artist, "because it shows more than his other works the manner and technique of Giotto's school." Padre Timoteo Bottonio wrote that it was painted in 1437, but the Dominican author adds that this is not likely, as Fra Giovanni Angelico was at that time in Florence, where the restoration of San Marco was begun, and also the building of the new convent which he adorned with so many marvellous frescoes.

This would actually signify little. As the picture which is said to have been painted for the church of Sant' Andrea at Brescia was naturally done at Fiesole, this one for Perugia might well have been executed at Florence. But though it recalls the most characteristic works of the artist and, for liveliness of colour and accurate study of form, may be considered one of his most remarkable works, we have no hesitation in ascribing it to his first artistic period. In both these altar-pieces the grouping of the figures is still faithful to Giottesque tradition; it was only later, i. e. when Fra Angelico had felt the artistic influences developing around him, that he placed the figures in one picture on different levels, to make a circle round the Mother of Christ.

The type of the Virgin herself in this Perugian picture is similar to that of the Cortona panel; they both have the eyes wide apart, a short, receding chin, and small mouth; characteristics which are also seen in the angels behind the Virgin's throne in the San Domenico picture at Cortona. From an architectural view the throne has here a much more antique shape than in his later designs, where Renaissance forms predominate. As to the picture at Perugia it has been so restored and arbitrarily put together after the panel was divided, that it affords no serious proof of authenticity.

We must therefore conclude that the Perugian one was painted before 1433, for could we possibly admit (as Padre Bottonio wills it) that it was done in 1437, that is only a year before the celebrated painting for the church of San Marco? And seeing that when the Dominicans again obtained possession of their own convent and returned to Fiesole neither Fra Angelico nor his brother Fra Benedetto were among them, we may reasonably suppose that Angelico was then at Perugia, painting the altar-piece for the Guidalotti Chapel; and that he only returned to Florence when he had finished that work, which we may date later than the panel still to be admired at Cortona.

These are the only works known to have been painted by him while he and his brethren had left their beloved Fiesole hills to seek peace and tranquillity in Umbria,--the only records of that period of voluntary exile.

II.

FRA ANGELICO AT FIESOLE.

Whilst Fra Angelico was putting the legends of the Virgin and St. Dominic into colour in Umbria, Giovanni Dominici together with Leonardo Dati, master-general of the Order, was negotiating with the Bishop of Fiesole and Pope Gregory XII. to again obtain possession of the convent founded by Dominici. It was only in 1418 that the Fiesolan bishop acceded to their request, on condition that the Dominicans would make him a present of some sacred vestments to the value of a hundred ducats. This sum, writes Marchese, was taken from the legacy left to the convent by the father of St. Antonino, who died about that time. A rich merchant having died in Florence in the same year, leaving the monks of Fiesole six thousand florins, it was besides decided to enlarge the building. The legal act of free and absolute concession being signed, the father-general at once sent for four of the monks from Cortona, among whom, as we have said, were neither Fra Angelico nor Fra Benedetto. This does not imply that all the others who had left in 1409, might not have returned later, and probably Fra Angelico among them.

It was in this convent from which on the side towards the ridge of the Fiesole hill, he looked on the olives spreading their silvery branches against the blue sky, that Fra Angelico, absorbed in work and prayer, passed the greater part of his life. It is impossible to determine at which of the many works that now adorn the Florentine and foreign galleries, he worked during his stay in Fiesole, where he remained till 1436; certainly he painted the panel pictures for his church, the Tabernacle of the Linen Weavers, and frescoes in some parts of the convent. That convent so dear to him must have awakened in his soul many bitter and sweet memories--whether he thought of the days when he and his brother Benedetto first took their vows, or of the successive vicissitudes when he and the brethren were forced to abandon it.

Vasari asserts that "he painted an Easter candle in several small scenes, for Giovanni Masi, a monk of the convent of Santa Maria Novella; and also some reliquaries which on solemn feast days were placed on the altar," and are preserved to this day in the convent of San Marco. They represent the "Coronation of the Virgin," the "Madonna della Stella" and the "Adoration of the Magi." The Coronation has been too much damaged by useless retouching to be able fully to judge of its merits. It is for this cause perhaps that some people have ventured to doubt its authenticity: "one perceives," writes Cartier, "his religious conception, and desire to follow his model, but the whole composition lacks order and space, the figures are heavy, attitudes embarrassed, proportions short, outlines coarse and the whole painting is strained."

Now this is not absolutely exact. Naturally if we compare this little reliquary with the great "Coronation" at the Louvre, we find the composition more compressed, but it is not confused. True, the types of the Virgin and Redeemer have not that grand simplicity which with sincere enthusiasm we admire in his later panels of the same subject. But possibly we have here the artist's first conception, an idea which he successively developed and perfected till he reached the highest grade of beauty, first in the picture at the Louvre, then in the truly celestial one of the Florentine Gallery.

In the little painting of the Madonna della Stella (of the Star) we have qualities of grace and nobility all Fra Angelico's own. The six adoring angels on the slope of the frame, and the two seated at the base playing musical instruments, not only fully reveal his ability, but might be classed with those of the Linen Weaver's Tabernacle as among the most beautiful and ethereal he ever painted.

The third reliquary which is divided into two parts represents the "Adoration of the Magi," below, and the "Annunciation" above. The Virgin has a book on her lap, her arms crossed on the breast, and head extended towards the celestial messenger who kneels before her; but both figures, though showing Fra Angelico's characteristic sentiment, have exaggerated proportions; the neck is inordinately long, the colouring enamelled, and so brilliant as to give the picture the character of a fine and elegantly illuminated missal. In the "Adoration" the Virgin displays the same defects of proportion, but among the figures of the three Kings and the personages accompanying them, are some of exceptional elegance and exquisite beauty. On the whole the scene may be classed among the finest and most graceful of the works which Fra Angelico has left to us.

There is a kind of reliquary in the Vatican Gallery, which represents the Virgin seated, with the Child on her left arm. Her raised right hand holds the rose, and at her feet kneel St. Dominic and St. Catherine. Cavalcaselle supposes this to have been the fourth of the reliquaries once in Santa Maria Novella, but it more probably belongs to that small painting reproduced by Prof. Helbig, in the Revue de l'Art Chretien, in which Angelico has represented the death and assumption of the Virgin.

The under part of the picture, representing the death of the Virgin, recalls, in the general grouping of figures, the same subject now in the Uffizi Gallery; but in this one, four Apostles are depicted in the act of raising the bier, while the others surround the Christ, who holds in His arms the soul of His Mother in the form of a babe. In the upper part we see the Virgin with upraised arms, being received by the Saviour who extends His hands as if in welcome. The type of the Virgin recalls that of the small panel representing the "Adoration" and "Annunciation." The Christ is, in the foreshortening and character of the face, a repetition of that on the reliquary of the "Madonna della Stella." The figure of the Virgin is incorporeal and insignificant; but the angels who in varied attitudes dance around the throne playing divers instruments, are charming and graceful.

In the ancient refectory of the Fiesolan convent Fra Angelico painted a life-size Christ Crucified, with St. Dominic kneeling below clinging passionately to the Cross. At the sides stand the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist; there is also a figure of the saintly founder, but it was either added later, or else has been badly restored and cannot be taken as Fra Angelico's work. The picture has been removed from the wall, and is now in the Museum of the Louvre; it is damaged in several parts; the delicacy of colouring is lost, the background spoiled, and only the figures of the Saviour, the Virgin, and the head of St. John remain in tolerable condition.

The other fresco in the old chapter-house (this also has been removed from the wall, and is now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg), represents the Virgin seated, with the Child on her knee, between St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas; all these figures show signs of incompetent restoration, the outlines and drapery having been repainted. Less spoiled perhaps by retouching, but yet in a deplorable condition, is the other painting, a Crucifixion, still existing in the Sacristy of the Convent. The Redeemer with extended arms, has His head drooping straight on the breast, and the legs are stiffened and curve to the right. A crown of thorns encircles the head, which is surrounded by a great aureole; but the head is small; and the face, with its insignificant features, lacks the intense expression which Fra Angelico usually succeeds in putting into similar subjects.

He also painted the altar-piece for the great altar in San Domenico at Fiesole, "which," writes Vasari, "perhaps because it appeared to be deteriorating, has been retouched and injured by other masters. But the predella and ciborium of the Sacrament are better preserved; and you may see infinite little figures which are lovely in their celestial glory, and appear indeed to come from Paradise, nor can those who draw near ever look at them sufficiently."

The picture is now removed into the choir. In the centre the Virgin with her Son, is seated on the throne; six angels stand around her in act of adoration, and two kneel in front with vases in their hands. At the sides St. Thomas and St. Peter are placed on the left; St. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr on the right. The retouching of which Vasari speaks, was done by Lorenzo di Credi in 1501, when the picture was reduced to its present form. We learn this from a record in the MS. chronicle of the Convent of Fiesole, which is quoted by Padre Marchese in his "Memorie." But the panel has suffered other and worse things than this. Other figures taken from an older frame have been substituted for those in the pilasters. Some coarse copies have been put in the place of the three "stories" of the predella, and the original one was sold, together with the ciborium.