“The Dominican Blessed”, left and right piers of the “ San Domenico Altarpiece” Fiesole, 1423-4, Fra Angelico, now at the National Gallery, London.
Originally, and as is shown below, these two panels ‘bookended’ the predella of the San Domenico Altarpiece, which the Dominican friar, Fra Angelico, painted for the recently founded Dominican Priory in Fiesole. Although they are quite small (c. 32X22cm), and at the base of the altarpiece, these two panels in black, white and gold, must have been eye-catching. The whole predella is filled with angels, prophets and saints, each painted in exquisite detail. The prophets and saints can be identified by their attributes. The Dominicans on either side are called blessed because they have yet to be canonised but were revered as holy. This is why they have rays rather than halos. For most of them Fra Angelico has written their names on their habits and many have an attribute indicating their particular path to holiness in this life. For example, you can see that some of them were bishops and that one was a cardinal. One of them, Jordan of Saxony, has no rays because he wasn’t yet beatified. On the bottom row, all the figures are kneeling. These are other members of the Dominican family. On the far left, there is a lay brother with his distinctive black scapular and beside him four nuns, who are dressed like the friars, but wear a black veil rather than the friars’ capuce. On the right, are six lay Dominicans. The four women wear white veils. One of them is St Catherine of Siena who holds her book. She would be canonised in 1461. The two male figures on the far right do not have rays, but they may be patrons. The nuns and lay Dominicans kneeling at the very bottom of the panels suggest that their prayer is the foundation of the mission of the whole Order. We celebrate Dominican All Saints on Friday and Dominican All Souls’ on Saturday. All Dominican saints pray for us.
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