Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro)

Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), born Guido di Pietro, was an Italian painter and Dominican friar, considered one of the great masters of the early Renaissance. He worked mainly in Florence and Rome, becoming particularly renowned for his frescoes in the convent of San Marco and his paintings in the Vatican. His work combines Renaissance artistic innovations with profound Christian spirituality, expressed through the delicacy of his figures and the serenity of his compositions. He was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1982 and proclaimed patron saint of artists in 1984.