The angelica tree is a member of the order Avaliaceae, a species of Aralia (A. spinosa), a native of North America; it grows 8 to 12 ft. high, has a simple prickle-bearing stem forming an umbrella-like head, and much divided leaves.

ANGELICO, FRA (1387-1455), Italian painter.  Il Beato Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole is the name given to a far-famed painter-friar of the Florentine state in the 15th century, the representative, beyond all other men, of pietistic painting.  He is often, but not accurately, termed simply “Fiesole,” which is merely the name of the town where he first took the vows; more often Fra Angelico.  If we turn his compound designation into English, it runs thus—­“the Beatified Friar John the Angelic of Fiesole.”  In his lifetime he was known no doubt simply as Fra Giovanni or Friar John; “The Angelic” is a laudatory term which was assigned to him at an early date,—­we find it in use within thirty years after his death; and, at some period which is not defined in our authorities, he was beatified by due ecclesiastical process.  His baptismal name was Guido, Giovanni being only his name in religion.  He was born at Vicchio, in the Tuscan province of Mugello, of unknown but seemingly well-to-do parentage, in 1387 (not 1390 as sometimes stated); in 1407 he became a novice in the convent of S. Domenico at Fiesole, and in 1408 he took the vows and entered the Dominican order.  Whether he had previously been a painter by profession is not certain, but may be pronounced probable.  The painter named Lorenzo Monaco may have contributed to his art-training, and the influence of the Sienese school is discernible in his work.

[v.02 p.0007]

According to Vasari, the first paintings of this artist were in the Certosa of Florence; none such exist there now.  His earliest extant performances, in considerable number, are at Cortona, whither he was sent during his novitiate, and here apparently he spent all the opening years of his monastic life.  His first works executed in fresco were probably those, now destroyed, which he painted in the convent of S. Domenico in this city; as a fresco-painter, he may have worked under, or as a follower of, Gherardo Starnina.  From 1418 to 1436 he was back at Fiesole; in 1436 he was transferred to the Dominican convent of S. Marco in Florence, and in 1438 undertook to paint the altarpiece for the choir, followed by many other works; he may have studied about this time the renowned frescoes in the Brancacci chapel in the Florentine church of the Carmine and also the paintings of Orcagna.  In or about 1445 he was invited by the pope to Rome.  The pope who reigned from 1431 to 1447 was Eugenius IV., and he it was who in 1445 appointed another Dominican friar, a colleague of Angelico, to be archbishop of Florence.  If the story (first told by Vasari) is true—­that this appointment was made at the suggestion of Angelico only after the archbishopric had been offered to himself, and by him declined on