The Renaissance

monastery, he won commissions to paint
church interiors and altarpieces. TheAn-
nunciation and the Linaiuoli Altarpiece,
painted between 1433 and 1436, were done
for the guild of linen merchants in Flo-
rence. In these works, Fra Angelico made a
startling advance over traditional Gothic
painting by accurately depicting interior
space, by using bright, vivid colors, and by
a more sculptural and realistic treatment
of human figures.

At this time he was operating a work-
shop that produced altarpieces and taber-
nacles for wealthy Florentine patrons. He
also worked as a manuscript illuminator,
whose paintings decorated the pages of
Bibles created by monastic scribes. From
1438 to 1445 Fra Angelico completed a se-
ries of frescoes and an altarpiece for the
monastery of San Marco in Florence. Co-
simo de’ Medici, the ruler of Florence, had
ordered the reconstruction of the monas-
tery and may have personally engaged Fra
Angelico for its decoration. The painter
and his assistants completed frescoes in
the cloister (including theCrucifixion with
St. Dominic), corridors, and chapter house.
He also completed forty-five small frescoes
in the cells of the convent. These simple
but skillfully rendered devotional paint-
ings were meant for a lifetime of study
and contemplation by the monks who
lived in the cells. The painter included
some architectural details of the monas-
tery in the paintings, giving them a star-
tling immediacy to their surroundings.

His work in the convent gained wide-
spread renown, The Strozzi family, rivals
of the Medici, commissioned an altarpiece
for the church of Santa Trinita. In this fa-
mous work, the landscape of Tuscany
serves as a backdrop for scenes of the cru-
cifixion. Pope Eugenius IV later brought
Fra Angelico to Rome to paint frescoes in
a chapel of Saint Peter’s cathedral, where

the artist worked in the last years of his

life. In the private chapel of Pope Nicholas

V, he completed a famous series of fres-

coes of the lives of Saint Lawrence and

Saint Stephen.

In 1447 Fra Angelico completed paint-

ings in the cathedral of Orvieto, including

Christ as JudgeandThe Prophets, assisted

by his student Benozzo Gozzoli. He re-

turned to Fiesole in 1449, when he was

elected prior (head) of San Domenico. A

master of fresco painting, Fra Angelico had

a long-lasting influence on the painters of

the Renaissance.

SEEALSO: Masaccio; Medici, Cosimo de’;

painting

France .............................................

The kingdom of France emerged from the

medieval era weakened from the Hundred

Years’ War and many years of poverty, stag-

nation, and plague in its cities and coun-

tryside. Economically weak and splintered

into several semi-independent principali-

ties, the realm managed under the Valois

kings to slowly consolidate its authority in

the capital of Paris. By the last decade of

the fifteenth century, France was taking an

aggressive role in the civil wars that were

then occurring in northern Italy. King

Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494, captur-

ing for a time the powerful duchy of Mi-

lan and threatening Rome and Naples. Al-

though this campaign turned out badly

for the king, it did expose France to the

new ideas originating among Italian schol-

ars and artists.

Gothic traditions dominated French

art and architecture through the fifteenth

century. Soaring cathedrals built in the

Gothic style were the work of generations

of skilled masons and carpenters. Artists,

France