Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/145

1455] which he had seen again on his way from Florence. Still more remarkable is the variety of type and individual character in these closing scenes of the Trial and Death of Stephen and Execution of Laurence. The bitter hatred on the faces of the Pharisees, the puzzled and suspicious look of the high priest, the curiosity of the spectators and indifference of the Roman soldiers, are all painted with a sympathy and insight that bring Fra Angelico before us in an entirely new light.

Unfortunately, these frescoes, which reveal the painter in the fulness of his powers, are the only works of his in Rome that have escaped destruction. The chapel which he decorated in the old basilica of St. Peter's, and the frescoes which he painted in the Dominican Church and Convent of S. Maria sopra Minerva, have all perished, and this oratory of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican alone remains to show that the earlier art of Florence is not unworthy of a place by Raphael's Stanze.

In 1450, Fra Angelico returned to Florence, and in the following January became Prior of his old convent at Fiesole. He was still there in March 1452, when the citizens of Prato begged his friend, St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, to send the painter to decorate the choir of their parish church. Fra Angelico complied with their request, and was honourably conducted to Prato on the 29th of March. But at the end of a month he returned to Florence, and finally declined the commission. Probably he was recalled to Rome by the imperative command of the Pope. All we know is, that three years later, on the 18th of March 1455, he died in