Evening Presentation Focuses
on Life and Work of Fra Angelico
Sisters, Associates and guests at the 125th anniversary weekend capped off a full Saturday with a power point presentation by Sister Barbara Cervenka, OP, on the life and works of the great Dominican artist, Fra Angelico.
An Associate Professor of Art at Siena Heights University, Sister Barbara recounted the life of Fra Angelico, born Guido Giovanni around 1395 to 1400 in the town of Viccio, 10 miles northeast of Florence. As a young man, Guido traveled to Florence and became an apprentice with an artist and joined a artists’ guild. In 1418, he entered the Dominicans, the Order of Preachers, in Fiesole.
Sister Barbara showed a succession of his works, including paintings, altarpieces and frescoes. Most notably, Fra Angelico created a series of frescoes for the cloister, chapel, refectory and cells of the monks at the Monastery of San Marco in 1437 and four fresco cycles at the Vatican. Fra Angelico held several positions for the Order of Preachers: vicar of San Domenico, syndichioof San Marco, and prior of San Domenico. He died in Rome in 1455, but it wasn’t until 1982 that he was finally beatified by Pope John Paul II.
During her presentation, Sister Barbara emphasized Fra Angelico’s holiness as well as his artistic genius. “Fra Giovanni was a man of the utmost simplicity of intention, and was most holy in every act of his life.” She explained that Fra Angelico “would never take the brush in hand until he had first offered a prayer” and was said “never to have painted a crucifix without tears streaming from his eyes, and in the countenance and attitudes of his figures it is easy to perceive the proof of his sincerity, his goodness, and the depth of his devotion to the religion of Christ.”