Fra Angelico Paintings Missing for 100 Years
Found Behind a Door
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2 of 9 Predella panels
San Marco Altarpiece, ca. 1438
Fra Angelico
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Imagine the surprise of art experts when two paintings
by Italian
Renaissance master Fra Angelico were found in November,
2006 behind a door in an apartment in Oxford, England. Fra
Angelico (c. 1400-55) was a Dominican friar in the city of
Florence. The paintings of Fra Angelico were influential in the
artistic development of many Italian painters who followed him,
most notably Masaccio.
The Fra Angelico paintings found were part of the famous
San Marco Altarpiece. The church of San Marco was a
Medici-sponsored
church, and Fra Angelico executed these paintings ca. 1438.
These panel paintings disappeared after the altarpiece was
disassembled for cleaning during the Napoleonic wars. These
two Fra Angelico paintings were among nine total which
were part of the predella,
an area found at the base of an altarpiece. Fra Angelico's main
panel for the San Marco Altarpiece can still be found
at San Marco in Florence today.
Brenda Harness, Art Historian
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