Fra Angelico

1387-1455. Florentine painter. Known also as Giovanni da Fiesola or Guido di Pietro, he entered when twenty the Dominican monastery at Fiesola. Between 1409 and 1418 the Great Schism forced him to go first to Foligno and then to Cortona, where some of his greatest paintings are to be found. He decorated the convent of San Marco in Florence and did frescoes in two chapels in the Vatican. It is not known where or when Angelico began his training as a painter, but his early work (1418-30) shows a close relationship to international Gothic style. Examples of this type of painting include his Coronation of the Virgin and The Last Judgment. His later work is characterized by Renaissance realism with the use of more natural backgrounds rather than an abstract gold setting. His works of this period, including Deposition from the Cross and the Crucifixion and other scenes from Christ's life, decorate the convent of San Marco.