There’s a glorious exhibition in Florence right now dedicated to one of my favorite artists of all time. Fra Giovanni Angelico.

The Strozzi Palace and San Marco are the dual hosts of this current show, which runs thru January 25, 2026.

The show is popular here in Florence and often very crowded. Of course that’s a good thing, unless you want to take good pictures. I did the best I could, fighting the groups of stationary people and the lighting.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will post about this amazing show, which is the largest critical reexamination of Fra Angelico’s work in the past 70 years.

The exhibition begins with a look at some of the painters who were contemporaries of or precursors for Fra Angelico. Key among them, Lorenzo Monaco, whose altarpiece for Santa Trinita is shown above and below.

Often in the predella, or the horizontal grouping of smaller paintings that underscore the larger one above, we find some of the most interesting scenes in art history. The next 4 slides show Lorenzo Monaco’s predella paintings.

Another precursor and favorite painter, Gentile da Fabriano

I would love to dress like la donna above, just once in my life!

I’m going to keep these posts short. It is an overwhelming subject to treat properly.

Alla prossima!