Fra Angelico (1395–1455) After Masaccio’s death, Fra Angelico emerged as the city’s most sought-after artist. Cosimo de’ Medici commissioned him to paint a series of frescoes in the dormitory cells and corridors of the Dominican Monastery of San Marco. The sacred scenes have a simple, restrained style (Fig. 4.9).
Cosimo de’ Medici commissioned a grand altarpiece for the church of San Marco of the Virgin and Child with saints. The story of the saints was told in nine small pictures in the predella, one of which is now in the National Gallery of Ireland (Fig. 4.10).
Figure 4.7 The Trinity, 1428, by Masaccio, fresco, 667 × 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella Church, Florence.
Figure 4.8 Perspective in The Trinity by Masaccio.
Figure 4.9 The Annunciation, c. 1450, by Fra Angelico, 230 × 321 cm, a fresco in a cell at San Marco, Florence. The perspective in the arches suggests the influence of Masaccio.
Altarpiece: A large painting placed on the altars of churches. They were sometimes hinged together in a diptych (two panels), triptych (three panel) or a polytych (many panels).
Predella: Small paintings at the bottom of an altarpiece.
