Source: Prado Museum
December arrives and we say goodbye to our review of the selection of masterpieces that we have visited each month in the Museo del Prado. No month has been easy to choose, there is so much quality on offer, but this month, the last, has been even more so. We hope that the choice is to your liking. A masterpiece and a story to tell, that of its arrival in our country.
This painting was done by Fra Angelico for ten years, between 1435 and 1445, in the middle of the Quattrocento, for Santo Domingo de Fiesole, near Florence. The artist's real name is Guido di Pietro. He was a friar of the convent of Santo Domingo de Fiesole, at which time he adopted the name Fra Giovanni de Fiesole, where he began his artistic activity at a very young age, in the field of miniature. His work, very personal, brings together elements of the Gothic tradition of the late XNUMXth century with the first Renaissance and its innovations, the spirituality that emanates from his paintings, earned him his nickname: Fra Angélico, a blessed man who understood painting as devotion. They said of him that he painted like angels, although he was only called Fra Angelico after his death.
The work is a tempera on panel, with notable dimensions of 194 x 194 centimeters. Despite its name, it represents two closely linked scenes, the cycle of loss with Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise and the salvation of man, the Annunciation of Mary, which gives its name to the work. The five panels of the predella represent other episodes in the life of the Virgin.
To reach the Prado Museum our work made a long journey. In 1611 the convent sold it to build a bell tower to Duke Mario Farnese, who gave it to the Duke of Lerma, almighty ruler of Philip III. Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, the great corrupter, with a biography that leaves the Gürtel in a shambles. They sang a song to him in Madrid at the time «In order not to die by hanging, the biggest thief in Spain dresses in red», when the Duke of Lerma took refuge in the clergy to avoid hanging and got the Pope to name him Cardinal. We do not know in payment for what services, but “The Annunciation” arrived in Spain. First to the Dominican church in Valladolid, later he went to the Convent of the Descalzas Reales from Madrid. From here he entered the Prado Museum in 1861 thanks to the painter's efforts. Federico de Madrazo, then director of the Museum.
This concludes our visits to the Prado Museum, a year revisiting the Museum once a month, an inexhaustible proposal of art, culture and history. It's not goodbye, just see you next time.
A abrazo.
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