Fra Angelico
The Cortona Altarpiece (The Annunciation)
1433-34
tempera on wood
175x180 cm
William Hogarth
Illustration from The analysis of beauty, written with a
view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste
1753
In the summer of 1997 we rented a wing of an
aristocratic villa near Sant'Angelo di Cortona, down the mountain on which
Cortona is located. At the Museo Diocesano in Cortona I found myself in awe of
this miraculous painting by Fra Angelico.
I must have been watching the wonder for at least half
an hour. The colors, the shapes, the use of space, the way the perspective was
done, the hand of the angel pointing, the hands of the virgin… everything a
wonderful joy and celebration of life and its wonders.
I was aquainted since early childhood with
reproductions from this painting, but facing it's astonishing beauty was
overwhelming.
It haunted me for years.
Six years later I painted "Three Apples".
Although there is no direct connection, I would never have painted it without seeing this work by Fra Angelico in person.
Dick van
Berkum, 2015
Dick van Berkum (NL)
Three Apples
2003
oil on canvas
200 x 150 cm
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