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Medieval Sourcebook:
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574):
Lives of the Artists: Fra Angelico
Back to Index to Vasari's Lives
FRA GIOVANNI ANGELICO DA FIESOLE, whose secular name was Guido,
deserves to be held in most honourable remembrance, both as an
excellent painter and illuminator, and also as a perfect monk.
He might have lived comfortably in the world, earning whatever
he wished by his art, in which he excelled when still young, but
being by nature good and serious, for his satisfaction and quiet,
and also principally to save his soul, he entered the order of
the Preaching Friars. There are in the convent of S. Marco in
Florence some choir books illuminated by his hand, which are so
beautiful that nothing could be better, and sorne others like
them, which he left at S. Domenico of Fiesole, painted with incredible
patience. It is true that in these he was aided by an elder brother,
who was also an illuminator and skilled in painting.
One of the first of this good father's paintings was in the Certosa
of Florence, our Lady with the Child in her arms and angels at
her feet singing and playing. He also painted in fresco in S.
Maria Novella. He was so beloved by Cosimo de' Medici that when
the church and convent of S. Marco were built, he caused him to
paint in it all the Passion of Jesus Christ, with many of the
Saints. They say that for the figure of S. Cosimo
Fra Giovanni drew from life his friend the sculptor, Nanni d'
Antonio di Banco. Below he painted S. Domenic at the foot of a
tree, and in medallions among the branches all the popes, cardinals,
bishops, saints, and doctors who had belonged to the order of
the Preaching Friars. In these the friars aided him by sending
to different places and obtaining portraits from life.
He also painted a picture for the high altar of S. Domenico of
Fiesole, but this has been retouched by other masters and injured;
but other pictures there by him have been better preserved, and
there are a number of little figures in celestial glory, which
are so beautiful that they seem really in Paradise, and no one
who sees them can ever weary of looking at them. But beyond all
that Fra Giovanni ever did is a painting in the same church of
the Coronation of the Virgin in the midst of a choir of angels
and an infinite number of saints, which it gives one a wonderful
pleasure to look at, for it seems as if blessed spirits could
look no otherwise in heaven, at least if they had bodies, and
they are all so lifelike and so sweet; and the whole colouring
also of the work seems to be from the hand of a saint or an angel,
so that it was with good reason that he was always called Fra
Giovanni Angelico.
By so many works the name of Fra Giovanni became famous in all
Italy, and Pope Nicholas V sent for him, and made him paint the
chapel of the palace where the Pope hears mass, and also illuminate
some books, which are most beautiful. And because Fra Giovanni
seemed to the Pope, as he was indeed, a man of most holy life,
quiet and modest, when the archbishopric of Florence fell vacant
he adjudged him worthy of the rank; but the friar, hearing of
it, prayed his Holiness to give it to another, because he did
not feel himself apt at governing men, and said that his order
had another friar, loving to the poor, learned, skilled in government,
and Godfearing, whom the dignity would much better become than
it would him. The Pope hearing this, and perceiving that what
he said was true, granted him the favour, and so Fra Antonino,
of the order of Preaching Friars, was made Archbishop of Florence,
a man of such holiness that he was canonised by Adrian VI. in
our days. And this great goodness of Fra Giovanni was in truth
a rare thing, thus to give up a dignity and honour offered him
to one whom in sincerity of heart he judged more worthy of it
than himself. And would to God that all religious men would spend
their time as this truly angelical father did, in the service
of God and to the benefit of the world and their neighbours. Fra
Giovanni was a simple man and most holy in his habits, and one
day when Pope Nicholas V desired him to dine with him, he had
scruples of conscience about eating meat without his prior's leave,
not considering the Pope's authority. He would not follow the
ways of the world, but lived purely and holily, and was a great
friend of the poor. He painted constantly, and would never represent
anything but the saints. He might have been rich, but did not
care about it, saying that true riches are nothing else than being
content with little. He might have governed many, and would not,
saying it was less troublesome to obey, and one was less liable
to err in obeying. It was in his power to hold dignities among
the friars and elsewhere, but he did not esteem them, a~irming
that he sought no other dignity than to escape hell and attain
to Paradise. He was most kind and sober, keeping himself free
from all worldly ties, often saying that he who practised art
had need of quiet and to be able to live without cares, and that
he who represents the things of Christ should always live with
Christ. He was never seen in anger by the friars, which is a great
thing, and seems to me almost impossible to believe; and he had
a way of admonishing his friends with smiles. To those who sought
his works he would answer, that they must content the prior, and
then he would not fail. To sum up, this father, who can never
be enough praised, was in all his works and words most humble
and modest, and in his paintings facile and devout; and the saints
whom he painted have more the air and likeness of saints than
those of any one else. It was his habit never to retouch or alter
any of his paintings, but to leave them as they came the first
time, believing, as he said, that such was the will of God. Some
say he would never take up his pencil until he had first made
supplication, and he never made a crucifix but he was bathed in
tears.
Source. These texts were at http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~pfitz/ART/REN/VASARI.HTM,but
vanished from the net, and so they have been restored here.
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors &
architects, by Giorgio Vasari: newly tr. by Gaston du C. de Vere. With five hundred
illustraiions, London, Macmillan and & The Medici society, 1912-15.
Other translations include:
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. The lives of the painters, sculptors and architects. London, J. M. Dent; New York, Dutton [1949-50]).
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors,
and architects. Abridged from the translation by Gaston DuC. DeVere. Edited, with an
introd., by Robert N. Linscott. New York, Modern Library [1959].
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the artists. Selected and translated by
E.L. Seeley. Introd. by Alfred Werner. (New York, Noonday Press, [1965, c1957]).
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the artists; a selection translated by
George Bull. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng. : Penguin Books, 1987.
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. The lives of the artists; translated with an
introduction and notes by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. (Oxford ; New
York : Oxford University Press, 1991.).
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