Strewing art..Blessed Giovanni da Fiesole

A little art rabbit trail.

In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland the protagonist follows a white rabbit through a tunnel, into an alternate world, learning about the mores of this alternate world....By extension, wandering down a homeschooling, learning rabbit trail would be following something , a topic, an idea, and ending up in a new world, so to speak, where one learns something new and sees something new.....

We follow rabbit trails all the time. Some long and involved. Some for five or ten minutes.

This morning's rabbit trail, after my workout and before breakfast, resulted in strewing art. Art books on the dining table. An art print as background on a computer.

Sweaty and tired after the puke-in-a-bucket workout, I turned the page in our Saints book on the dining table and found out it was the feast day ( February 18) of blessed Giovanno Angelico – the Dominican friar and painter Fra Angelico.

I have always enjoyed the use of colour by this Renaissance artist. So we read a little about Fra Angelico, grabbed some art books and our Faith and Life series to look at prints and we did some internet research..

Blessed Giovanni da Fiesole (Fra Angelico) was commemorated on February 18. Born as Guido di Pietro in 1386 or 1387 in Vicchio, Tuscany. He entered the Dominican Order in 1407 taking the name Brother John of the Angels. Fra Angelico (Angelico meaning 'Angelic' in Italian) was a Dominican friar renowned for his artwork.

The artwork of Fra Angelico continuously shows the goodness of creation, and this is exemplified in his many representations of the Annunciation.

Fra Angelico's greatest complete work was his "Life of Christ," a series of thirty five paintings in Fiesole. They began with the vision of the Prophet Ezechiel and ended with the lovely "Coronation of the Virgin". These pictures hint to us that Brother John of the Angels was a capable theologian and a Scripture scholar.

He was also a devoted son of St Dominic, whom he loved dearly and never tired of painting.Fra Angelico was beatified 3 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and in 1984 the Pope declared him patron of Catholic artists.

See more prints and more information at The Artcyclopedia.

Rabbit trails before breakfast..learning that is not planned but happens..with interest and enthusiasm...as life..as breath.

There is no difference between living and learning..it is impossible, and misleading, and harmful to think of them as being separate. John Holt