is different places of abode, thus
establishing the various periods of his life and artistic productions;
from the Fiesole hills, where the first seedlings of his fantasy were
sown, to green Umbria, where his early works are, works warm with
enthusiasm, faith and youthful candour: from Florence, which he
enriched with admirable frescoes, and innumerable pictures dazzling
with gold and azure, to Rome, where he left his grand pictorial legacy
in the oratory of Pope Nicholas V.

[Illustration: Angels of the "Last Judgement."]

I.

FRA ANGELICO
AT CORTONA AND PERUGIA.

[1409-1418.]

[Illustration: ANGEL OF THE ANNUNCIATION. (Pinacoteca, Perugia.)]

If, after a study of the pictorial works of Fra Angelico, any one
should undertake to make a precise classification of them, he
would--although his frescoes are easy enough to classify--find himself
confronted by no small difficulty in regard to the panel paintings.

So active and original was the artist, and so grand in
his simplicity, that he always remained just what he appeared
from the beginning,--the painter of ingenuous piety, mystical
ecstasy, and intense religious fervour.

[Illustration: HISTORY OF ST. DOMINIC'S LIFE.]

No record is extant of his first visit to Foligno, but in the church of
St. Dominic at Cortona we may still admire a triptych with the Virgin
and four Saints; an Annunciation; and two "predelle"; one of which is
said to have belonged to the picture of St. Dominic, as the scenes
relate to the life of that Saint, and the other with some stories of the
Virgin, to the Annunciation mentioned above.

[Illustration: THE RESURRECTION OF CARDINAL DE' CECCANI'S NEPHEW.]

To the story of St. Dominic (which had already been treated in a
masterly manner by Fra Guglielmo, in the "arca" at Bologna, and by
Traini in his picture at Pisa), Fra Angelico has, in some scenes,
given a fuller development, but with less dramatic sentiment; exactly
the good and bad points which are more clearly shown in his other
works. The "predella", divided into seven parts, represents the birth
of Saint Dominic; the dream of Pope Honorius III., to whom the Saint
appears in act of steadying the falling church; the meeting of the
Saint with St. Francis; the confirmation of his rule by means of the
Virgin; the visits of St. Peter and St. Paul; the dispute with
heretics; the resurrection of the nephew of Cardinal de' Ceccani; the
supper of the Saint and his brethren; and l