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Each cell was decorated
with an image to aid religious meditation. These frescos,
by the Dominican Fra Angelico and his workshop, marry extreme
clarity with stylistic restraint. Christ appears in most,
often in scenes of the Crucifixion. He appears like a vision,
as if materialized from thin air. The paintings seem to
hover like images projected on to a screen. Now that San
Marco is an Era Angelico museum the visitor may walk at
will from cell to cell. But this denatures the works of
the painter, making them into a sequence — an exhibition
of Angelicos — which is not how they were intended
to be seen. They were pictures to be locked away with, one
to one, for hours on end. They have the character of hallucinations.
That is, possibly, what they were intended to stimulate.
Long, hungry contemplation of the image might bring it to
life.
~ from BBC,
Andrew Graham-Dixon RENAISSANCE
...
... in our minds
and our hearts. It inspires love and generates great acts
of kindness in our intention. When we are present with Beauty,
we have hope - we are transformed. We are kind.
Beauty carries
with it a noble responsibility of compassion. Beauty is
for everyone to know - it is God's gift for us all - by
which to come into kindness. To remind us, if of nothing
else, then specifically of the beauty which is God.
December
continued - Getting It In Writing... >>12.13
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