Presentation of Christ at the Temple (Armadio degli Argenti)

Fra Angelico was tasked with decorating the Silver Treasury of Santissima Annunziata during the years of 1450-1452. He produced at least thirty five different artworks which were then placed in simple arrangements and added to the walls of the chest.

The artist tried to keep these compositions relatively simple so that the project could be completed on time. In the example of Presentation of Christ at the Temple, we find four figures in the foreground, with elements of architecture dotted around the rest of the scene. Many of the frescoes have rolling landscapes in the background but in this example we are set indoors within a delightful church. Fra Angelico also deliberately avoids taking our attention with the architectural features, and so they are delivered with a relatively neutral palette of plain colours. In comparison, the figures in front have brighter clothing and some accessories which are consistent with particularly roles in the church. The artist allows light to sneak in from the front and back, with some narrow windows and open design to the building. He was also capable of incorporating very realistic rolls of material which produced a high level of accuracy within the clothing of each figure.

The painter would also produce another version of Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and many of the themes within this project appear again elsewhere in his career. It is fair to say that the main Christian themes would be worked on by most artists of this period and they would regularly be asked by different institutions to keep re-visiting the same content. This forced them to try to be creative as best as possible, but also they made use of assistants from time to time which perhaps made it less frustrating to have to re-do much the same topic each time. Additionally, these installed pieces came with their own unique challenges, such as elements of a building which might interfere with their initial plans for each composition.

This was a highly gifted artist who achieved success in both Florence and Rome. He helped to continue the transition from the Middle Ages across towards the more famous later stages of the Italian Renaissance. Another painter who may be of interest to you would be Masaccio, who himself created some highly regarded paintings such as The Tribute Money, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden and Holy Trinity. He would also work with egg tempera and it would be many years before oils would be used instead within Italy. That influence came from abroad, specifically the low countries, where oils were the main method many years before the fashion spread across to the kingdoms of Italy. It would be developments in other ways that made the Early Renaissance so important, with advancements in perspective, style and colour spreading across the country, with particularly strong impacts being made in specific cities across the centre and north of the country.