FRA ANGELICO (1395-1455)
Mount Sinaï / Jabal Musa (2,285 m - 7,496ft)
Egypt
In Fuga in egitto, 1450, toile 38,5x37cm, Museo di San Marco, Firenze,
The painter
Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence. He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One); the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".
In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed 'the Angelic' ".
Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."
Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence. He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One); the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".
In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed 'the Angelic' ".
Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."
The mountain
Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496ft) or
Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount
Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named
mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinaï.
The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and
other books of the Bible) and in the Quran. According to Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place
where Moses received the Ten Commandments (depicted in the Jean-Léon
Gérôme painting above).
Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint
Katherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629m -
8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt.
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian
Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that
consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types,
including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite
to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to
peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions
and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in
Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower
route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels
can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up
the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
