Photo Pest: Spiritual Experience

The New York Times led me to all but my last job; nearly two decades later, I can credit it for giving me the heads-up about one of my few spiritual experiences, too. The Old Gray Lady included "Fra Angelico" at Florence's Palazzo Strozzi in a round-up of must-see art exhibitions this fall. Even before going, I felt blessed scoring a ticket as all timed admissions to see "David" at the Accademia already had been booked in advance.

"Last Judgment" (detail, see below)

Although the exhibit is a retrospective of Fra Angelico's entire oeuvre--which required loans from 70 museums worldwide--the Strozzi understandably gives pride of place to the altarpiece that he completed for the family chapel after Lorenzo Monaco, the artist initially given the commission, died in 1424. Fra Angelico painted the main panel which illustrates Christ's removal from the cross, the same scene that Michelangelo depicts in his Florentine Pietà .

About ten minutes into the perfectly lit, modern galleries with excellent informational text, I realized I had the palazzo mostly to myself because temporary exhibits don't appear in guidebooks. After earlier, somewhat brutalizing experiences in Florentine museums, it felt a little bit like heaven.

"The Franciscan Triptych" (1428-29)

Predella content--aspects of Renaissance painting to which I had rarely given much attention previously--add biblical narrative to the altarpieces that reminds me of comic book panels. Only the dialog bubbles are missing. But they also made the exhibit more difficult to assemble, as many had been separated and scattered throughout the world.

"Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata" (predella)

"Saint Francis's Trial by Fire before the Sultan" (predella)

Here, Fra Angelico merges the intensity of his most common themes with his extravagant use of color. It convinced me that I prefer egg tempera paintings embellished with actual gold to those in oil.

"Last Judgment" (ca 1425-28)

(detail)

Hell looks almost as crowded as the Accademia or Uffizi.

(detail)

The artist, baptized as Guido, didn't become known as Fra Angelico ("angelic brother" in English) until after he joined the Dominican order and became well-known for both his convictions and skill. Living hand to mouth, he painted only religious subjects, he refused to climb the ranks of the Catholic hierarchy even after being summoned to the Vatican and he never repainted or revised his work, believing that the act of painting was a form of intimate and direct communication with his god, which isn't unlike what some secular artists have described "as being in the zone."

"Virgin of Humility" (1434-35)

"It is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety" wrote my man Vasari, whose knowledge and taste immeasurably enhanced many of the artworks I saw, even in retrospect.

"Crucifixion, with the Mourning Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist;
The Four Evangelists and Saint Dominic" by Fra Angelico (border, ca 1435)

People who saw Fra Angelico at work reported that he cried as he painted crucifixion scenes.

"Christ as King of Kings" (1447-50)

The exhibition includes a few works by other artists including Filippo Lippi, who painted the "Martella Altarpiece" (ca 1440). He differed from Fra Angelico in both technique and lifestyle. His influence on Botticelli, one of his students, is evident in his use of perspective. And while Lippi took religious vows with the Carmelites, he left the monastery in his mid-twenties and began living like a Renaissance gangsta: Barbary pirates kidnapped him; he escaped from his cell using a rope made of sheets when Cosimo I locked him up to complete a commission; and some believe that relatives of the young girl he seduced after she posed for him as the Madonna poisoned him in his early 60s. Papal dispensation from Rome for their marriage arrived too late to save him.

And the Strozzi wouldn't be a Florentine museum without a nod to Cosimo I, an early champion of Fra Angelico after he arrived at the San Marco church in Florence, where Cosimo occasionally took refuge in a monastic cell for what sounds like some precious "me time."

Cosimo de' Medici by Workshop of Antonio Rossellino (ca 1460-64)

After seeing his "Annunciation" fresco, Cosimo encouraged Fra Angelico to continue decorating the rest of the friary including many of its 44 monastic cells. While there, he also completed an altarpiece that depicted "sacra conversazione" between the divine and the saints, who congregated around Jesus and Mary for the first time instead of flying around the throne as had been the tradition.

"San Marco Altarpiece" (ca 1438-42)

"Saints Cosmas and Damian and Their Brothers Thrown into the Sea,
Saved by Angels, and Freeing the Proconsul Lysias from Demons"

"Attempted Burning at the Stake of Saints Cosmas and
Damian and Their Brothers"

"The Entombment"

"Beheading of Saints Cosmas and Damian and Their Brothers"

"Burial of Saints Cosmas and Damian"

"The Miracle of the Black Leg"

Had I done my homework better, I would have visited the downstairs friary too, instead of purchasing a ticket only for the Michelangelo-designed library that the complex also houses, and where I went next. Nevertheless, a shaft of sunlight as I exited the Palazzo Strozzi reminded of my last spiritual experience in a religious context even if I missed the full extent of this one.

Less than a week after I returned from Italy, the Times afforded me a timely opportunity to comment on Jason Farago's superb review of the exhibit, even designating it one of their "picks."