A major work by a lauded Renaissance artist, newly restored, has again taken up residence in the very church for which it was originally painted. Fra Angelico’s Fiesole Altarpiece (ca. 1420–1423) has been restored to the Church of San Domenico, just north of Florence, where the artist once was a Dominican friar.
Born Guido di Pietro in Tuscany around 1395, Fra Angelico was dubbed Fra Giovanni di Fiesole when he entered an order of Dominican friars in that hillside town around 1420. After his death, his fraternity would rename him again, calling him Fra Angelico, or “angelic brother.” Giorgio Vasari, the Renaissance artist and biographer of artists, would write of him, “I am sometimes in astonishment, and am at a loss to comprehend how one man could so perfectly execute all that he has performed.” The artist is said to have been so pious that he prayed before painting and wept while depicting the Crucifixion.
A major work of the Early Renaissance in Florence, the Fiesole Altarpiece depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned, accompanied by eight adoring angels as well as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Barnabas, St. Donic, and St. Peter Martyr. The commissioner of the altarpiece was Barnabas’s namesake, the wealthy Florentine merchant Barnaba degli Agli.
The piece was created as a triptych, but adapted to its current form in 1501 by painter and sculptor Lorenzo di Credi, hired to modernize it in a Renaissance style. What had originally been a gold ground was replaced with classical architectural features offering a view of a landscape behind them, and the triptych was altered to be a single, square altarpiece.
The piece suffered in the 19th century, with the original predella being torn away; it now resides in London’s National Gallery. The small saints on side pilasters were sold off on the antiques market.
Daniele Rossi restored the painted surface of the artwork, while Roberto Buda restored the wooden structure, both under the supervision of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the City of Florence and the Province of Prato. Buda’s efforts included removing structural elements put there by earlier restorers; restoring the wooden planks that make up the panel’s framework; and designing a support structure that is more elastic, allowing for the natural expansion and contraction of the wood. Rossi treated the paint surface, meanwhile, by removing oxidized varnish, decayed retouching, and incoherent integrations and additions, allowing viewers to appreciate the luminosity of Fra Angelico’s palette and the precision of his gilding.
The piece was a special focus in “Fra Angelico,” a two-venue exhibition that was at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco, through January of this year. The blockbuster show featured more than 140 works from some 70 lenders, and was the largest retrospective of the artist’s work since 1955.
