Research Of Fra Angelico’s Paintings

In this thesis,I mainly use the 15th-century Florentine monk painter Fra Angelico as the research object.I will take Fra Angelico’s frescoes as the main line of analysis,and at the same time,take his artistic activities as the supplementary line,to analyze it in depth,and to explain the humanism thoughts and the use of theological iconology in his works.Fra Angelico was one of the painters on the early Italian Renaissance.As a monk painter,he spent his entire life painting only for churches,and his creations were all on the theme of religion.As both a monk and a painter,he used his brush to convey a rich inner world and spiritual life.The main contents are as follows:1)Explain how Fra Angelico became a monk painter and the main scope of his activities,and analyze the influence of his life experience on his artistic activities,starting from the life experience and artistic activities of him.Introduce that his artistic career started from entering the Dominican convent,then he created frescoes for the churches of Florence and the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament on Rome,until his death in Rome.Angelico’s whole life was in a period of collision of intense religious concept and humanistic liberation concept.Explore the formation of Fra Angelico’s painting style,by sorting out the relationship between his teachers and him and analyzing the works of contemporary artists.2)Explore the specific sources of Fra Angelico’s early style,by the comprehensive analysis of the comparison of Fra Angelico’s early 1420s works,such as San Pietro Martire Triptych and San Domenico di Fiesole Altarpiece,with the works of the contemporary masters of painting,like Masaccio,Gentile da Fabriano,Lorenzo Monaco and others.Then,discuss the reasons and characteristics of the transformation of Fra Angelico’s later style,by analyzing his intersection with Lorenzo Ghiberti,when creating The Tabernacle of Linaioli in the 1430s.Summarize the characteristics of his style,through the deep analysis of his works in his mature period of the 1430s.Analyze the realistic concepts in Fra Angelico’s paintings,through the spatial depth of composition,the use of color,and the description of figures’ modeling.3)Summarize the significance of Fla Angelico on the history of painting.The value of his paintings is not only reflected in the visual level,but also the spiritual thoughts expressed in the content of the picture.Fla Angelico had a double life being as a monk and a painter at the same time,which makes him special,and his religious devotion run through all his paintings.Therefore,the analysis of his works should not only focus on the excellence of his painting techniques,but more the spiritual pursuit he expressed in his works.To sum up,this thesis is a case study focusing on the paintings of Fra Angelico,trying an exploratory research through the analysis of the source of the painter’s works on the early period,and the characteristics of those on the mature period,and taking the content,time,function and other aspects of the works as key points.