A major two-venue exhibition dedicated to early Renaissance master Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455) has opened at Palazzo Strozzi and Museo di San Marco in Florence. The show, four years in the making, features unprecedented loans from over 70 museums and 28 newly conserved works, including the Fiesole Altarpiece (c. 1420-23) and the San Marco Altarpiece (1438-43). It reunites dispersed predella panels and decorative components looted during the Napoleonic era, presenting the most complete picture of Fra Angelico to date while challenging the notion that his work was archaic.
The exhibition matters because it repositions Fra Angelico as a sophisticated innovator who combined theological clarity with spatial gymnastics, rather than a merely devotional painter. By reassembling major altarpieces and highlighting his technical mastery of gold tooling and narrative predella scenes, the show offers fresh insight into his artistic achievement. The collaboration between two historic venues—Palazzo Strozzi and the former Dominican convent of San Marco, where Fra Angelico’s celebrated frescoes remain in situ—creates a unique dialogue between the artist’s portable works and his permanent architectural context.