Abstract
Fra Angelico’s Virgin Enthroned with Saints Peter, Paul, and George, Four Angels, and a Donor (c. 1446) is an octagonal panel 25 cm in diameter, currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Created in the 1440s, this panel encapsulates the complex relationship between art, religious devotion, the civic person, and the psycho-spiritual imagination in quattrocento Italy. The panel initiates spiritual meditation, transformation, and transportation through tangible qualities that offer psychological points of entry. Virgin Enthroned offers a case study through which to study Fra Angelico’s broader usage of contextual, environmental, and sensory cues in order to encourage spiritual imagination. Virgin Enthroned operates as a transitional piece in Fra Angelico’s work; the panel was created during a pivotal moment between monumental commissions—the San Marco Altarpiece in Florence on behalf of the Medici family at the height of their power, and the frescoes of the Niccoline Chapel decorating Pope Nicholas V’s private chapel within the Vatican in Rome. I argue that Virgin Enthroned becomes a portal, borrowing from diverse visual and sensory languages and transporting the viewer into a new heavenly realm. Using similar methods, in his San Marco Altarpiece and the Niccoline Chapel Fra Angelico activates the viewer’s contemplation, allowing the senses to guide the spiritual imagination. This research will unpack Fra Angelico’s methods for psycho-spiritual transportation in these three works. Contextualizing Virgin Enthroned within his body of work reveals Fra Angelico’s negotiation of sensory engagement. Through imaginative transportation and recognizable visual references, Fra Angelico examines the role of the physical person in ritualized spirituality.