In a past article I examined the cloister crucifix and chapter hall of the convent of San Marco in Florence, following the iconographic study of William Hood. This is a continuation of that study, so I suggest you read the original article initially. I have tried to locate as many online images as possible, however not all the images I refer to are available. I recommend that for a full view one acquires one of the many superb folio works on Fra Angelico’s San Marco frescoes.

Direct Instruction: The Cloister Lunettes.

Fra Angelico painted five lunettes above certain doorways in the cloister of San Marco. Though they are a relatively minor part of the priory, they are important as unambiguous example of how the frescoes in San Marco functioned.¹ Each image is intended to inspire a particular attitude or disposition in the room beyond. These lunettes operated to remind the Friars of the constitutions that they lived under. The frames of the two most important, that of St Dominic above the chapter room and St Peter Martyr above the chapel sacristy were designed to ‘puncture’ the wall, just as the crucifix in the cloister and the chapter room fresco.

This was most important for the St Dominic lunette, for it was painted tempera on panel and hung against the wall, so the need to make it seem ‘deep’ was greater as being painted on wood it was not integrated into the fabric of the wall like a fresco.² Though the image is damaged, one can easily make out St Dominic holding the scourge and the constitutions of the order. This is very direct iconography. This composed the friars to remember the need for penitence and obedience to the rule. The chapter room was, among other things, where the prior disciplined his friars and where the ‘chapter of faults’ was held. Friars confessed their contradictions of the rule in front of their brethren and superiors and were given due penances which included anything from increased chores, fasting, prayers or the ‘discipline’ or scourge. The lunette makes a strong connection to the elaborate fresco inside, which I discussed previously, which focuses on the passion; an important image that has direct correlation to penance, obedience and sin.

St Peter Martyr Enjoining Silence (fig1) in the lunette above the sacristy entrance is a well preserved example of Fra Angelico’s use of perspective to bring the Saints into the friars’ world. His halo overlaps the frame to form an extra plane, while the frame itself contains illusionistic ‘indents’ to create even greater depth. Silence in the church was commanded by the first constitutions and was seen as an act of humility for the sake of one’s neighbor.³ It functioned as a way of ensuring the friar could be totally immersed in his purpose of meditation and prayer.⁴ Peter Martyr himself gives the instruction for silence, demonstrating that the friars were part of a larger family of deceased saints that participated in the life of the order even after death.

The entrance to the guest quarters is surmounted by an image of two Dominican friars welcoming Christ as a pilgrim (fig 2), a call to those who administered to visitors to keep in mind the constitution of hospitality. The message of this image is clear and beautiful, and the friars would have immediately been reminded of both the constitutions’ remarks about hospitality and St. Paul’s words to the Hebrews, “be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”⁵

The location of St Thomas Aquinas lunette (fig 3) above a corridor between the guest quarters and the piazza, seems somewhat misplaced until one realizes that is was probably where the original library was housed before Cosimo acquired the collection of Niccolo Niccoli and built the new and beautiful library.⁶ St Thomas was the epitome of the Dominican ideals of prayerful study. The Friar enjoyed supreme intelligence and spiritual exaltedness as a saint. This image encouraged the friars, who had an intense intellectual life, to emulate the Angelic Doctor, as St Thomas was called, and to call upon his guidance.

The image of the Homo Pietatis (Man of Sorrows) above the refectory is simple and beautiful. The Homo Pietatis was a widespread image at the time that referred to the Eucharist and the mass particularly and in this case was a reminder that the friars’ communal meals were similar to that of the Eucharist of the last supper.⁷

These lunettes seem obvious in their function, but they promoted not just a rigid following of a rule of life but a full movement of the soul. The friar attending to pilgrims was not simply reminded to be well mannered to his guests, but to love them as Christ, just as those entering the chapter hall, including the prior, were reminded that St. Dominic was the spiritual master of the order and so on. Thus one can see in these simple and subtle images how the other pictures in the convent were meant to invoke an interior as well as exterior disposition.

Prayerful Study: The Friars’ Cells.

The Priory of San Marco is divided into three distinct corridors: first were the novices’ cells facing south. The purpose of the Dominican novice was to achieve a harmony between the body and the soul; an integration of contemplation and action.⁸ These paintings were most definitely done by an assistant, probably Benozzo Gozzoli.⁹ Unlike in the east corridor housing the clerics, the novices’ frescos are rectangular with the figures set on a small piece of landscape against a white intonaco ground (fig 4). ¹⁰ They are bordered by a red and green alternating pattern connecting them to the chapter room. Each image is basically similar, but the figure of St Dominic changes to correspond with one of the Nine Ways of Prayer, a treatise on the way St Dominic prayed.¹¹ This was used to train students in the ways of combining the physical liturgy of the constitutions that governed their life with spiritual contemplation. “…St Dominic, standing before the altar or in the chapter room, would fix his gaze upon the crucifix, looking intently at Christ on the cross and kneeling down over and over again, a hundred times perhaps.”¹² These ‘modes of prayer’ included pious reading, self flagellation, prostration, pious conversation and different dispositions of the body and spirit. Not all the ways of prayer are represented; the size of the cells made it impossible to display prostration, and uniformity would not allow sacred conversation to introduce another figure.¹³ Nevertheless, the idea was to enliven the mind to aspire and take part in these actions as a whole. The frescoes’ function was to encourage the novice to seek divine union by acting in a certain way to promote his soul to do the same.¹⁴

The Clerics’ dormitory along the east side of the convent houses some of Fra Angelico’s masterpieces. At the same time, some of the images are particularly banal and must have been done by assistants.¹⁵ There seems to be no set coherency to the images, and likewise they lack narrative structure and depth, but Hood puts forward the idea that they correspond to the liturgical cycle.¹⁶ This seems slightly inventive: though the images do all have a corresponding day in the mass or liturgy of the hours, the amount of passion scenes seems to make this argument redundant. Nevertheless, the friar would have definitely connected his fresco to periods of the liturgical year, even if it was not a planned series. Indeed the lack of narrative comes alive when combined with the readings and prayers understood in the liturgical calendar.¹⁷ Each image, save the narrative Noli Me Tangere (fig 5) of the lay brothers’ master’s cell, contains two exemplars, most often the Virgin and St Dominic. These figures are placed outside the space where the sacred action takes place, because they were not designed as witnesses but as respondents.¹⁸ In each they pray in a way that corresponds to the De Modo Orandi. In The Mocking of Christ, (fig 6) Jesus is struck and spat on by fictive tormentors while Mary and St Dominic are seated in front. St Dominic holds a book, emulating the eighth way of prayer; holy reading. This was not simply study but meditative reading. The friar was expected to take this and contemplate in prayer the meaning of the words.¹⁹

The prior’s double cell has a subject specifically designed for the occupant.²⁰ In it the presentation in the temple is depicted (fig 7). This is an allusion to the presentation of novices into the order, as well as the patronal feast of a small youth group attached to the convent, whose banner Fra Angelico designed.²¹ Likewise the Dominican exemplar, here St Peter Martyr, prays in the fourth mode; that of compassionate intercession, in which way St Dominic was said to pray for the brothers.²² One can see that as in the cloister, the function of the frescoes in the cells of San Marco is not to simply display narrative; indeed the scenes make no concerted attempt to be realistic in setting or action.²³ They promote meditation on a scene or pious idea combined with a particular set of actions, whether from the liturgy, constitutions or the De Modo Orandi.²⁴ Dominican meditation did not simply consist of imagining oneself present at events. Rather it was a ‘prayerful study’ where a preacher meditated on aspects of the scenes; Christ’s twofold nature, Mary’s humility, Christ’s baptism as a manifestation of the Trinity, etc.²⁵ By this the Dominican prepared himself to preach on the subject of the sacred texts.²⁶

The Lay brothers’ cells are the most narrative of all, indeed as opposed to all other frescoes in the cells and cloister these actually focus on narrative and most of the scenes were painted by assistants. Lay brothers did not perform serious liturgical duties in the chapel, but spent the time in their own separate choir praying hundreds of Paters and Aves, the foundation of the modern ‘Rosary.’²⁷ They were the generally uneducated, lower class members of the community who performed the manual work such as cooking, cleaning and often providing income with a trade.²⁸ Thus the frescoes are not mystical or spiritual, but focus on a simple narrative, which on the whole revolves around a Holy Week cycle.²⁹ The images also have a large amount of written text in them, as if the lay brothers’ lack of deeper theological education required these prompts. They function to help in the prayer of the Lay brother, designed specifically to take into account his domestic rather than his spiritual role in the community.

Cell frescoes function as a quite elaborate tool of prayer and contemplation. Indeed, such beauty is unsurpassed in mendicant convents. The size and realism recalled the friar to imagine himself with his heavenly brethren at the very place which the image depicts, and to emulate the way in which these saints react in prayer and deed.

A Window into Heaven, the Annunciation in the North Corridor.

The Annunciation (fig 8) is one of Fra Angelico’s most loved frescos and is only one version of a common theme he depicted during his lifetime.³⁰ The Dominican focus on the incarnation is part of their focus on the humanity of Christ. Its location assumes that it was intended to be seen not solely by the friars.³¹ Unlike the cell frescoes, the Annunciation speaks to the community as a whole.³² The scene is dominated by a ground floor loggia characteristic of Fra Angelico and reminiscent of Michelozzo’s cloister.³³ The walled garden is a symbol of Mary’s virginity, an allusion to the Song of Songs in the Old Testament. The most striking aspect of the image is its sense of presence.³⁴ The fictive pietra serena mouldings of the frame give it great depth, its proportions were derived from the actual architecture and its vanishing point was created to make a plane where the viewer feels like they are ‘in’ the picture.³⁵ Its shading and location is actually designed to incorporate the light which falls on the image in the early morning, in order to heighten the message that the Annunciation is not bound to mere history, but in a moment that is cosmologically and spiritually eternal.³⁶ The archangel’s wings have been mixed with silicia to make them glitter, and his halo and garment have been gilded. This adds a certain ‘life’ to the image.

The Annunciation is a direct example of the relationship between image and liturgy. The inscription along the bottom calls all who pass by to recite the same words of the Angelic Salutation. When they said this either verbally or mentally, the Dominicans would have genuflected.³⁷ Thus they, like the angel, genuflected to their mother and Abbess in direct imitation of Gabriel himself. This image is the summit of the function of the San Marco frescoes, the inclusion of the spiritual world into that of the friars,’ in this case achieved with unsurpassed visual splendor.

The San Marco complex is a masterpiece of the renaissance world. Michelozzo’s brilliant architecture seamlessly combines with the frescoes of Blessed Fra Angelico to form a place of powerful simplicity and deep spirituality. The essence of the friars’ mission was preaching, but within the convent they were taught to contemplate the aspects of their faith within a life governed by strict obedience to the liturgy of the constitutions. The frescoes acted as a way in which the novice, lay brother or friar could connect the physical and the spiritual and contemplate their God in the fullness of their own humanity. Whatever his reasons for doing so, Cosimo’s decision to fund an artistic cycle in the building created a masterpiece of Renaissance art and a doyen of religious artistic expression.