Accompanying the exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
Boston, this catalog explores one of the most important artists of the
Renaissance. Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455) transformed painting in
Florence with pioneering images, rethinking popular compositions and
investing traditional Christian subjects with new meaning. His
altarpieces and frescoes set new standards for quality and ingenuity,
contributing to Angelico's unparalleled fame on the Italian peninsula.
With the intellect of a Dominican theologian, the technical facility of
Florence's finest craftsmen and the business acumen of its shrewdest
merchants, he shaped the future of painting in Italy and beyond. The
exhibition reunites for the first time Fra Angelico's four reliquaries
for Santa Maria Novella (1424-34; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and
Museo di San Marco, Florence). Together they cover key episodes in the
life of the Virgin Mary and capture in miniature some of his most
important compositional innovations. Assembled at the Gardner with
exceptional examples of Angelico's narrative paintings from collections
in Europe and the United States, this exhibition explores his celebrated
talents as a storyteller and the artistic contributions that shaped a
new ideal of painting in Florence.
