Fra Angelico Zwiastowanie Podcast Otulina o sztuce s04 e22

Otulina on art is a podcast in which I reveal the secrets of old art to you My name is Aleksandra Janiszewska-Kardona and I invite you on a fascinating journey I myself find it hard to believe but it's not only December it's already halfway through the month And now we're in the penultimate episode Wrap-Up on Art in 2025 I don't know when that time ran out or how it is that the year is already ending But I still hope at all the episodes I recorded this year about art by Otulin brought you pleasure They brought a little joy and knowledge into your life especially that which connects information from the field of art history and with such a broader reflection on the world and how it functions Of course huge thanks I'm directing this toward the patrons and benefactors at patronite pl and it's truly no exaggeration when I say that both the podcast and all the posts on social media platforms are made possible solely by you The effort I put into my work—admittedly it involves a significant number of tasks related to producing a podcast finding interesting information processing it in a way that makes it engaging for you—that’s real effort I gladly accept it and I also thank you for considering it important enough to support me in these efforts If for any reason you are unable to support Otulina financially in this way remember that every like every profile view is also support for me and also a signal at what I do makes sense Remember I'm always speaking to myself to myself I have you in my mind You are important to me You are the audience for what I want to share But I can't see you so when I receive such a response a signal that you enjoy what I do That is a huge source of motivation for me even inspiration to keep seeking topics and moving forward And now let us move on to the story of the painting I have chosen for you today: The Annunciation painted by Fra Angelico The painting currently housed in the Prado Museum you may also recognize its composition from one of Florence's most important artistic sites the monastery of San Marco which is now converted into a museum It can be visited And it was right here that Fra Angelico e created in each of the respective purposes fresco compositions in the rooms where the brother monks lived This kind of painting is particularly intriguing permanently tied to its substrate Of course they can be sealed It has the quality of performing best precisely in the place for which it was created And here lies the great fortune We can experience this composition right there in person along with the entire atmosphere that develops around it And indeed the very announcement was also carried out by him also painted Before I tell you about the painting I'd like to sketch the background against which we're operating Who was Fra Angelico He is the artist known today born at the end of the fourteenth century who lived until 1455 He was born as Guido Pietro It wasn’t clear for a long time exactly when he began his artistic journey As you've likely already realized artists from the past rarely leave behind many written documents Are you certain their lives aren't already recorded Sometimes if they could be tracked down it was possible to verify when they were baptized when they appear in church records that's how we determine their birth dates And the same applies to burial dates But such source materials are very often simply destroyed or it is very difficult to identify whether a given individual even if recorded in church registers is truly from such records refers to that man whom we later come to know as the artist We also know someone by an artistic pseudonym after all Italian painting has countless artists we know them more by their pseudonyms than by the names they received at baptism With Fra Angelico it is different as he took Dominican vows having taken religious vows and renamed them Giovanni da Fiesole that is John of Fiesole And this as we now refer to this artist This artist is associated with immense acclaim which his work began to enjoy the decades following his death During his lifetime he was not known as Angelico Of course this is a title which needs to be translated into English This refers to a particular quality of his painting in this instance I Fra meaning Frater which means brother is an abbreviation referring to that monastic brother I Angelico meaning a nickname he earned as a sign of respect but during his lifetime he was not widely known under this designation We may still encounter in literature the term Beato Angelico meaning Blessed Angelico The artist was known primarily for decades through the account in the life of Giorgio Vasari This figure the chronicler appears before us quite frequently here especially when we talk about Italian artists above all And there he was described in rapturous terms as the creator of a rare and exceptional talent And it is precisely here that this notion emerges Repeating the term Angelico Let us remember that Vazerii wrote his book 100 years later After Fra Angelico's death he had also described a certain legend a fame already established Of course 100 years is a very long time especially at a moment when we have no contact Stories and insights from the sources Knowledge is passed down orally It may then become slightly distorted And this is also the domain of lives Meanwhile they also record many things o which we would no longer have access today They describe works that Vazerii himself had seen at existed during his time and later were destroyed From the documents that were discovered Through archival records from the 20th century we know that Fra Angelico was active as an artist Before entering the monastery He took his vows at the monastery of San Domenico in Fiesole He joined the order becoming part of the Dominican community He also adopted the Dominican rhythm one in which strict adherence to the principles of complete poverty and asceticism This suggests that one can indeed say here as I believe that he possesses a remarkably strong and vid spiritual and faith-driven current such a need to follow the guidance of Saint Dominic as well as religious ideals His spiritualization the fact that he was a monk is not merely an overlay nor is it just a method for the sake of safety for belonging to a community For after all these were all reasons that could have guided people ose who joined religious orders provided they could afford to do so There were also various requirements for entering the monastery here as was the case with Fra Angelico his decision to abando e artistic opportunities that as an artist he could have had and potentially gained during his rise s career his fame Fra Angelico chooses the path of a spiritual artist a monk-artist His religious vows were likely taken before 1421 but still within the period preceding that year documents describing Guido di Pietro as the one who received payment for performing certain services artistic circles in Florence and thus it is known that he was first active precisely as a creator as a painter He ultimately made the decision to alter the course of his spiritual journey There is also no clear indication of who his teacher was It is assumed he was associated with the workshop of Lorenzo Monaco In Florence too an artist less known from his works yet appearing in the records of Gerardo Starnina and also his body of work the evolution of his style which is evident in his creations was very closely linked frequently referenced from Mazaccio's body of work not through a master-apprentice relationship only on the basis of a certain shared way of thinking although the older Fra Angelico was than this well-known one e Florentine fresco painter at the same time Masaccio had died earlier He was in his early twenties when he died leaving behind First and foremost the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel at the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence precisely The groundbreaking frescoes here depict Adam and Eve When searching for the Rental Stamp Duty those are all the works involved which are invoked when discussing the breakthrough in art between stylistic approaches and medieval thoug At the time known as the Renaissance Beato Angelico also known as Fra Angelico was an artist aware of these transformations which he embodied in his own work not in as systematic a manner as the Renaissance creators did e rebirth in Florence who established converging perspective They placed the human body at the center of their concerns e was merely carrying out this pragmatic even logical approach we might say e way of viewing and rendering reality precisely in his own works Fra Angelico is also an artist who is often described as as the creator of such sweet soulful scenes and indeed the color palette he employs whether in fresco or in panel painting Just an exceptionally vibrant highly saturated color scheme This is especially evident in panel painting where the use of specific pigments—such as lapis lazuli—plays a key role ghly expensive yet delivering rich deeply satisfying color saturation With lapis lazuli it's that deep blue a rich intense shade of blue Ultramarine is the term used here for this color What's important is that in many works he created he dedicated himself to the act of creation itself large altar fittings large altars for temples wherever he received commissions he naturally used gold I'm saying this of course even though it's not the time to use gold like that as common or as obvious as in previous centuries We must remember that gold in medieval art is not merely Offering an estimate to God by using the most precious finest materials Gold also allows light to be subtly woven into the composition If gold is used as a background fill the creatio as halos which surrounded the heads of holy figures were filled That is a symbol a sign of our extraterrestrial reality such a transcendent dimension or space or entity Of course gold was also used in such forms as liquid and powdered Paint could be made using gold as a pigment and this was tied to using the finest materials available purchased by the person who commissioned the work Let us also remember that these altars stood in dark temples One was inherently dark though it could of course have windows those interiors could be illuminated yet they often were not For much of the day they appeared less clearly visible If they had those gold elements just imagine how that would look The candles standing before them their flames reflecting off the metallic glossy surface of the gold making them shimmer with reflections as well The elements painted in gold The shapes that could be described as golden became more pronounced more visible And even if the entire composition was unreadable to the faithful from the perspective of someone looking at the altar not as a work of art and as an object of veneration such a person was able to see the most crucial points either way The most important figures are precisely those who benefited from the use of gold Fra Angelico as I mentioned to you First he took his vows at San Domenico in Fiesole He then moved to Florence to the newly established monastery of San Marco Florence which was then a bubbling cauldro various artistic pursuits This is the year 1438 The city already boasts works by Filippo Brunelleschi Donatella mentioned Masaccio We also have a developing artistic landscape architectural whether in the form of fresco decorations or sculpture Moreover we also have the Medici family which grows and grows in fame and whose representatives have a deep awareness that patronage and artistic sponsorship It also positively impacts the family's reputation And here is Cosma Medyceusz the one responsible To enhance the renown of this family and strengthen its standing the status of a family that at the time belonged to the signori His representatives were in the government of Florence Florence was a republic and care was taken in that phase so that no family would seize power so that it wouldn't become such a damned tyrant However the Medici family ultimately rose to this position as Dukes and Grand Dukes of Tuscany Of course this is a song of the past at this stage in my telling The Medici family was a banking dynasty as well as a family of politicians And if you're curious to learn more about what Florence has to offer I remind you that in the first season I recorded an episode titled Florence the Medici and Stendhal Syndrome So there you can hear more about the entire city and how living there can still leave you dizzy However Fra Angelico's arrival was linked to the construction of the new San Marco monastery itself I also devoted myself to it over the years as it took him twelve years e decoration of individual cells inhabited by his brethren as well as those of the monastic quarters which were intended for visitors to the monastery Sam Cosma Medyceusz had his own cell there dedicated to him This is a time when spiritual and religious life is more deeply embedded in the consciousness of even the wealthiest individuals They of course implement this in various ways seeking solitude as well Such silence in those places in the monasteries Though one shouldn't overstate it either It often happened that one would meet up with certain allies there as well as with individuals with whom they wished to secretly conduct conversations beyond the prying eyes of those merely curious somewhere within such a monastery and such retreats to these secluded places could also serve there Let us return however to the work that brought us together today at is the announcement preserved in the Prado Museum created circa 1426 at is during the time when Fra Angelico was still a member of the San Domenico convent in Fiesole The work served as a side altar within the church of that order and there he had previously painted the main altar depicting the enthroned Mary with the Child among the Dominican saints A highly appropriate and quintessential topic for a church belonging to the Dominican Order The work regained its brilliance in 2019 when it underwent thorough conservation It has been preserved in its two-part form meaning the main presentation which you are undoubtedly familiar with at is the depiction of Mary during the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel On the left side of the composition through such a gap a garden is visible It's a scene from the Old Testament when Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden of Eden This is the central scene we are viewing—the main one But it should be remembered that the work also included a predella It remains preserved and is part of the Prado' s collection having also undergone conservation The predella is the lower section of a multi-tiered altarpiece located beneath the main panel It was often used to depict various narrative scenes In this case the trailer contains scenes from Mary's life ose that are important for understanding its meaning in the history of salvation It's also just a few scenes depicting the beginning and end of her life A predelle also served functional or purely practical purposes served as a type of pedestal upon which the altar was placed Moreover this central scene was raised above the level of the altar table at is above the level of the table on which the altar is placed whereas the predella was also decorated So here we have two elements that help us understand her essence The piece has been preserved and I believe it's in such excellent condition precisely for that reason because until the beginning of the 17th century it was kept in Fiesole later it was acquired by the Spanish king and transported to Madrid It is now part of the royal collection We must remember that Prado's collections truly inspire awe in this regard It's a massive museum but also a monumental piece of history How Spanish monarchs collected art and what their tastes were And those deposits didn't shift all that much either Of course there are always exceptions always some differences yet we have the chance to view both Bosch and in this case Fra Angelico there various artists who enjoyed the recognition of the Spanish monarchs The painting is executed in tempera primarily using this medium Here we also have elements of gold It is done on a board and it has almost a square format That's 190 centimeters by 191.5 As I mentioned two scenes are shown Looking from the right through the arcades we see inside the chamber where angel and Mary are located Maria sits on a throne covered in fabric so much so that we might almost say yet it's probably some kind of chair maybe even a stool especially if we look around the interior of this room before our eyes unfolds a second room There's a simple bench a plain box and there's also a window We can also see the play of light on the wall so it's not an opulent interior The Mary we're seeing is still a young girl under this premise of the story yet already depicted in attire the robe that belongs to her the robe of the Queen of Heave with a blue cloak of such a deep intense shade of blue dyed in such a herring-colored shade here it has that lower portion of the coa I'm wearing a red dress though today it's more of a pinkish shade which is adorned with golden embroidery along the hem of the dress as well as on the sleeves and neckline We also find gold in the halo surrounding her head and against this backdrop her radiant face shines forth It's portrayed with extraordinary gentleness her entire body having such a soft delicate shape bends curves that arc a crook My hands are folded at chest level and this slight inclination gives the impression of receiving the words spoken to her by the Archangel Gabriel He is also visible inside this space though it's clear he has stepped beyond the threshold of the portico where he is located He is accompanied by a radiant glow depicted against a backdrop of golden rays His robe is also adorned with golden elements and his wings are made of something resembling golden petals Although the feathers appear to be shaped like peacock feathers I too bow before Mary offering her reverence in the same gesture of devotion Bowing in homage his hands also folded over his chest he gazes at her What matters most is that there are no words between them no written elements—something that frequently appeared in medieval art To avoid leaving anything unsaid the Archangel Gabriel would say Hail Mary and it would flow naturally from his words That factor which brings together the two characters simultaneously giving full meaning to this scene are golden rays flowing down from the sky They emerge from between the hands shown in the upper left corner of the composition in the form of a sphere of golden light There are two divine hands from which a ray a beam of rays emanates At their conclusion these rays carry the dove of the Holy Spirit at is the most crucial moment in the story the instant when Gabriel announces to Mary that she will give birth to the Son of God She disbelieving but saying that it should happen to her according to the words she has just heard e dove of the Holy Spirit is precisely the symbol of this union between God and Mary and of course of that between God and humanity at she will soon become pregnant with Jesus The artist also introduces the figure of God such a carved relief adorning the wall between the figures of the Archangel and Mary I'm the figure here she has the features of an older man with a beard somewhat messy hair who looks at Mary looks at her as if observing how she receives these words An interesting addition is also a swallow perched above the column resting on such a railing where curtains are usually hung curtains are hung Here the artist Fra Angelico must be acknowledged despite the story's deeply mystical nature as well as a heavy burden of responsibility to ensure it is theologically sound At the same time it has an extraordinary eye for the practical almost downright pragmatic side of reality which it shows Here this small element the lines which are defined by the metal rod lying both before us and defining the depth within the space revealed One has practical significance but at this moment it is not being utilized nor is it being applied So there's a great deal of empiricism here a wealth of observations drawn from life and everyday experience even as we examine the scene of such great significance of such immense potential inherent in this spirituality And precisely this detachment in a way appears on the left side because this is the space—where the Archangel Gabriel entered —this is the garden's realm a garden filled with a variety of plants and flowers This is a paradise garden We now see Adam and Eve overwhelmed—Adam nearly in tears—being expelled from paradise But it is not the expulsion we might associate for instance with Masaccio's chapel when the angel with the flaming sword drives the first parents into such a harsh scorched landscape Only here does the angel guiding them toward the exit from paradise seem to show a touch of compassion Somewhat understanding the situation she bears the weight of it for them Of course he is unyielding but that is simply part of his nature There's something very gentle in his gestures—so empathetic so understanding almost as if he truly shares the feelings of first-time parents The garden also symbolically refers to one of Mary's titles as well as to the titles emphasizing her virginity at is hortus conclusus—the enclosed garden a place no one may enter a within it blooms just ripening there's also well this metaphor of fertility here and just as certainly included within it The painter undoubtedly did not place various plants in this scene by chance such as a palm tree which in symbolism may also refer to a foretelling of a man's future martyrdom Of course Christ Red roses symbolizing the blood he shed during his sacrifice during the passion leading up to his crucifixion However above all the combination of these two scenes at is original sin committed by Eve and her curiosity Although Frangelico does not emphasize her role here it only shows the consequence—her banishment from paradise The scene of the preview is a direct remedy for that expulsion from paradise for the original sin that caused it at people were metaphorically expelled but here in the Bible literally from the place of eternal happiness where they could live in peace within God 's embrace free from sin free from shame beyond all bodily cleanliness This gesture of Mary of Nazareth who receives the words of the Archangel who chooses to offer her body as a vessel from which the human form of God shall be bor which in turn offers its life on the cross for humanity is the remedy for that error This error of curiosity the original sin which Christ redeems with His blood Of course this is delicately implied here only suggested because the entire work has a rather cheerful tone rough the color palette through the gentleness of the gestures surprisingly I think in perception because it in no way diminishes the depth or the artistic expressio and also I believe that religious message that spiritual message It does not shout it does not strike It doesn't offend in the slightest when it comes to that word And I think in a world that has been quite difficult o life to truly living—day by day so rich so vidly colorful overflowing with splendor With that same share of gold presented here could have a calming effect on the mind and these spiritual contents religious thoughts lingered in the mind of the devout viewer even after contact with the work and could influence them o deeper spiritual reflection should such a need have existed in relation to this work As I mentioned earlier there are also scenes in Predelli—smaller vignettes five in total—that depict moments from Mary's actual life from the beginning until death We have her birth and marriage we have the visitation the homage of the three kings e presentation in the temple a significant scene connecting Mary's life with Jesus' life And her falling asleep that is her death They are exceptionally well-crafted and at the same time the artist here gives himself greater freedom in shaping relationships between characters introducing such a compositio ot quite following established patterns which is why just like in this central scene which is much larger In their proportions the message conveyed must be clear and easily understandable Tak the predella which invites closer engagement with the artwork also grants the artist a certain freedom to explore seeking out new ways of storytelling new ways of creating something and here there are truly several very interesting ones Enjoy the flavors truly authentic ones I'll tell you more about this in the patron-exclusive content because if you're supporting the blanket on Patronite I also publish these additional materials for everything that didn’t fit into the episode so I think I'll discuss more broadly what's visible on the Predelli while meanwhile I'd like to say goodbye to you Wishing you peaceful holidays a calm and quiet time no matter how you're celebrating I'll admit that Fra Angelico also came to mind as an artist who would be useful o those among us who will spiritually experience the holidays as well as those who are atheists but still seek peace and quiet They need peace a break from the many intense stresses I feel at they are now developing quite rapidly in the world Although this may sound strange I preparing this material and inevitably looking at the image searching for various elements I found inner peace stillness somewhere There 's something about gazing at these colors e calming effect that helps the mind finally quiet down The mind grows still And one more parish announcement— if you'd like to listen In artworks created in northern and southern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries January marks the occasion for the Art Transfer Foundation I've prepared another season of art journeys which I've titled Did the Renaissance truly bring about a rebirth Of course that's a catchy title but we'll be taking a closer look at it How art evolved during the 15th and 16th centuries in these two major centers on either side of the Alps How it's referred to We'll be talking about the Netherlands we'll be talking about Italy on how art was imagined and perceived through various paths and also its role I want it to be created in such a way that it inspires awe So if you're feeling up to it Wednesdays in January are precisely the story of Renaissance art by Art Transfer Foundation A peaceful happy time We'll hear from each other just before New Year's Eve