Stairway to Heaven: The Poignant Works of Fra Angelico

Giorgio Vasari wrote that Fra Angelico was so pious that whenever he ‘painted a Crucifixion the tears would stream down his face’.

Fra Giovanni da Fiesole was also known as ‘Fra Angelico’ or the ‘Blessed Angelico’ because of his exquisite and moving depictions of paradise. He is perhaps the most celebrated religious painter of the Early Italian Renaissance.

This talk considers the delicate and poignant works he created throughout his career, from the serene frescos in the monastery of San Marco to the arresting depiction of Christ with bloodied eyes in his painting ‘Christ crowned with thorns’.