The Presentation in the Temple (detail) by Fra Angelico (1442)
Fra Angelico, with the assistance of other artists, frescoed scenes from the life of Christ in the cells which made up the dormitories of the Dominican friars of San Marco. This detail of The Presentation in the Temple comes from Cell 10. The life-size figures dominate the small space of the room where the friar would spend much of the day in study and prayer. The story which appears in Luke’s gospel narrates how Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to be ‘consecrated to the Lord’. Joseph presents a basket with two turtledoves as an offering to the temple as required by Mosaic law after the birth of a first-born son. The tongues of flame flickering at the centre of the altar remind us of this sacrifice. Fra Angelico depicts the moment when Simeon, a devout old man, receives the very vision of the Messiah which God had promised him before his death. Fra Angelico shows Simeon holding Christ while gazing at the child. The old man’s expression recalls the words Luke gives to Simeon: “Master now you are dismissing your servant in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples”. Together with Mary and Joseph, the artist includes two other figures: at left Saint Peter Martyr and opposite him Blessed Villana, a fourteenth-century holy woman of Florence. The two saints function as intermediaries between the viewer in front of the scene and the holy figures depicted. Like the friar who every day contemplated the scene, Saint Peter Martyr and the Blessed Villana dwell on this episode from the infancy narrative. Their faces radiate absorption in God’s revelation of his gift of salvation to his steadfast follower Simeon and to all humanity.
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