Part 5

The predella, now in the National Gallery of London, is divided into five compartments. In the centre is Christ robed in white, His right hand raised in benediction, and a standard held in His left; at the sides are a crowd of angels--some blowing trumpets, others playing instruments, others again in attitudes of profound veneration--all have robes of pure and brilliant hues with azure wings lightly sprinkled with gold. The side scenes have multitudes of saints, either standing or kneeling in adoration: on the left are patriarchs, bishops, monks and martyrs, each with his own emblem; on the right, a crowd of kneeling feminine saints among whom we can recognise St. Agnes, St. Catherine and St. Helen, and behind them a line of male saints, amongst them St. Cyprian, St. Clement, St. Thomas, St. Erasmus, and others whose names are written on their mitres. Still higher King David, St. John Baptist and the prophets Jeremiah, Zaccariah and Habakkuk. The faces are painted with great delicacy and accuracy, and although they show some variety of lineament, the expression is rather mannered. The outlines of the feminine saints are full of grace and those of the other sex do not lack great dignity. Although the work is of minor proportion, it shows a noteworthy progress when compared with the conceptions of Orcagna.

The greater part of the draperies are rendered with most refined colouring, so delicately toned and judiciously contrasted, that no part of the painting appears either crude, or of exaggerated richness; while the gold used in every part of the background contributes to give great harmony to the whole. In the pictures placed at the end of the predella, the Dominicans are depicted in their white robes and black mantles.

This delightful work, which roused the admiration of Vasari, contains not less than 266 figures and may justly be considered as one of the gems of the collection. Executed with all the delicacy of an illumination, it sparkles with bright but harmonious colours, while the spirit of devotion which penetrates the whole is entirely characteristic of the painter.

Angelico reached greater perfection in the picture of the "Annunciation" of which Vasari says: "In a chapel of the same church is a picture from the same hand, representing Our Lady receiving the Annunciation from the angel Gabriel, with a countenance which is seen in profile, so devout, so delicate, and so perfectly executed, that the beholder can scarcely believe it to be by the hand of man, but would rather suppose it to have been delineated in Paradise. In the landscape forming the background are seen Adam and Eve, whose fall made it needful that the Virgin should give birth to the Redeemer."

This picture (purchased in 1611 by Duke Mario Farnese) is now in the Museum at Madrid. The Virgin is seated on the right under a graceful portico sustained by small columns. Her head inclines a little towards the Angel, in the same attitude as in the Cortona altar-piece and the fresco at San Marco. She holds the book on her knees, and crosses her hands on her breast; while the golden winged Angel, in its rose coloured robe, with an arm curved in similar attitude of reverence, sheds light around, as in the painting at Cortona. High up in the left corner the hand of the Eternal Father sends down a ray of light, in the midst of which the Holy Spirit is symbolized. In the background, as in the Cortona picture, Adam and Eve are being expelled from Paradise.

In the predella are some beautiful "stories" representing the "Marriage of the Virgin," the "Salutation," the "Adoration of the Magi," the "Circumcision of Christ" and the "Death of the Virgin."

"But superior to all the other works of Fra Giovanni, and one in which he surpassed himself, is a picture in the same church (i. e. San Domenico at Fiesole), near the door on the left hand of the entrance: in this work, he proves the high quality of his powers as well as the profound intelligence he possessed of the art which he practised. The subject is the Coronation of the Virgin by Jesus Christ: the principal figures are surrounded by a choir of angels, among whom are vast numbers of saints and holy personages, male and female. These figures are so numerous, so well executed, in attitudes so varied, and the expressions of the heads so richly diversified, that one feels infinite pleasure and delight in regarding them. Nay, one is convinced that those blessed spirits can look no otherwise in heaven itself, or to speak under correction, could not, if they had forms, appear otherwise; for all the saints, male and female, assembled here, have not only life and expression, most delicately and truly rendered, but the colouring also of the whole work would seem to have been given by the hand of a saint, or of an angel like themselves. It is not without sufficient reason therefore, that this excellent ecclesiastic is always called Frate Giovanni Angelico. The stories from the life of Our Lady and of St. Dominic which adorn the predella, moreover, are in the same divine style; and I, for myself, can affirm with truth, that I never see this work but it appears something new, nor can I ever satisfy myself with the sight of it, or have enough of beholding it."

The painting is now in the Louvre at Paris, having been taken from Fiesole during the French invasion of 1812.

Under a rich canopy with inlaid columns and brocade hangings the Redeemer seated on the throne, places the crown on the head of his Mother, who kneels before him, with hands crossed on her bosom. Around them angels are making the air resound with the voice of song, and the music of many instruments. Saints, male and female circle round, some standing, others kneeling, their fixed eyes and ecstatic features denoting their joy in such divine splendour. Among the saints are the great personages of the religious orders, together with bishops and emperors. On the right, among the kneeling female saints are seen St. Agnes tenderly pressing the lamb to her breast, St. Catherine holding her wheel of torture and a palm, St. Ursula clasps the arrow which united her in death to her divine Spouse, St. Cecilia's pretty head is garlanded with flowers, while St. Mary Magdalene turns her back showing the rich locks of hair flowing over her shoulder as she holds the vase of ointment in her left hand. On the opposite side are St. Dominic with the lily and open book, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Anthony and St. Francis. On a higher level St. Louis, with his crown of fiordalise, talks with St. Thomas; while St. Nicholas supports himself with both hands on his pastoral staff.

"It is a clever composition, wonderfully balanced, and the solemnity of style does not at all exclude exuberance of life or infinite variety of ideas.

"The bodies are almost diaphanous, the heads ethereal, the atmosphere and light have a touch of the supernatural. Up to this point the subject is subdued, but the colours lively and pure--among which blue and carmine predominate--gleam with particular splendour."

The predella contains in some small compositions the chief episodes in the life of St. Dominic, excepting the central compartment where Christ is drawn, issuing from the sepulchre between the Virgin and St. John. The compositions are all executed with that love and delicacy which are the glory of the artist, but even these little stories, like the larger panel, have been more or less injured by repeated restorations.

A similar subject now in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence and which Fra Angelico painted for the church of Santa Maria Novella, is still more aerial and celestial, a perfect masterpiece of sentiment and mystic expression.

Here also Fra Angelico clings to that traditional characteristic, peculiarly his own--the art of sacred vision, but with what new life he animates it, and what poetical witchery he throws into this creation of his ascetic fantasy!

His predecessors reproduced with slight varieties the model of Giotto, and the great Florentine painter himself has given us the scene in its most simple reality. High in the central part of Giotto's "Coronation" Christ places the crown on the Virgin, who with hands crossed, bows her head to receive the homage of her Son. But on her face there is no expression of ecstatic joy, modest, indeed "humble in the midst of glory", she droops her eyes, almost as if she dared not rest them on the Saviour. Angels and saints, symmetrically disposed at the sides, fill the whole background of the picture, with heads either raised in admiration or bowed in respect, but in attitudes so similar, that they give a sense of monotony. Then come the saints, some kneeling at the foot of the throne, and others in the side wings of the triptych, reverently bowing to the Mother of God.

Fra Angelico repeats the principal motive, but develops it according to his high ideal, his intense faith, and mystic sentiment. He gives to the Virgin an expression of infinite sweetness; to the angels a truly celestial charm, to the saints a serene expression of beatitude, and to the whole scene the azure divine character of a vision of Paradise.

High in the centre the Redeemer extends his right hand to add a brilliant gem to the crown of the Virgin, who sits near him, with hands crossed in loving reverence. A luminous golden ray from this group engraved on the panel, forms gleaming and resplendent waves in the background of the picture, from which groups of angels stand out, playing all sorts of music, or dancing with hand clasped in hand. Two are prostrated in profound admiration at the base, and shed clouds of incense from their thuribles, while two others draw melody from heavenly harps.

In the lower part of the picture are many saints, who by their charmed faces and feeling of ineffable joy, show how delighted they are with the vision and the heavenly music.

"The greatest eloquence," writes Marchese, "would fail to express the impression which this painting produces. The heart has a language which does not always speak in words, and we can never contemplate this picture without feeling in love with heaven."

Among the works which were undoubtedly done by Fra Angelico during his stay at Fiesole, may be ascribed several different representations of the Last Judgment. He derived the inspiration of the subject directly from Orcagna's fresco in Santa Maria Novella, only Fra Angelico has created a paradise too exclusively modelled on the monastic life. "His ideal," writes Reymond, "is a young neophyte entirely absorbed in prayer--a contemplative being who has renounced earthly life, abdicating his qualities as a man to dream of nothing but the future life. Orcagna, on the contrary, dreams of an ideal in which human life triumphs in all its fulness, and one might say that the beings which people his Paradise are but glorified bodies."

Fra Giovanni painted Hell and Paradise with small figures for the Camaldolese monks of Santa Maria degli Angeli. This is the picture now in the Ancient and Modern Gallery at Florence, of which Vasari writes, "he proved the rectitude of his judgment in this work, having made the countenances of the blessed beautiful and full of a celestial gladness; but the condemned, those destined to the pains of hell, he has depicted in various attitudes of sorrow, and bearing the impress and consciousness of their misdeeds and wretchedness on their faces: the blessed are seen to enter the gate of paradise in triumphal dance, the condemned are dragged away to eternal punishment in hell by the hands of demons."

The representation is faithful to artistic tradition. In the highest part the Saviour calls the elect to Him with His right hand, while with His left He motions away the reprobate: around Him are eight winged cherubim, with whom kneeling angels below join to form a circle. Some are adoring or praying, others hold scrolls in their hands. On the right sits the Virgin in white robes, with hands crossed on her breast and head gently bent: on the left St. John Baptist with hands clasped in prayer. At the sides Patriarchs, Apostles and Prophets, and at the extremities St. Dominic and St. Francis. An angel holds the cross at the feet of Christ, and two others flying, blow their trumpets towards the dead, who rise from the open sepulchres below.

In the base at the left, demons drag the damned ones to Hell; on the right the elect cast glances of love and faith on the Saviour, and in joyous fraternity enjoy the heavenly guerdon. The Elysian Fields of the blessed are truly celestial, gleaming with gold, irrigated by limpid streams, glorious with beautiful flowerets that bloom amid the verdure, the exuberance of nature harmonizing marvelously with the joy of the elect.

And in that midst their sportive pennons waved Thousands of angels, in resplendence each Distinct and quaint adornment. At their glee And carol smiled the Lovely One of heaven That joy was in the eyes of all the blest.

Not unworthy of the divine poet is Angelico's heavenly composition in which as in the Dantesque Paradise is shed

Light intellectual replete with love, Love of true happiness, replete with joy, Joy, that transcends all sweetness of delight.

Together with these verses of Dante, Fra Angelico, while endeavouring to depict the dance of the blessed, may well have called to mind these verses of a sacred laud, which is said to be by Iacopone da Todi and (whether his or not) describes in popular language the celestial carola of the saints:

Una rota si fa in cielo De tutti i Santi in quel zardino, La ove sta l'amor divino Che s'infiamma de l'amore.