Madonna of the Shadows (detail of Saints John the Evangelist, Thomas Aquinas, Lawrence and Peter Martyr) by Fra Angelico (c.1450)
The observant Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence features a number of the Dominican artist Fra Angelico’s most famous paintings. Now a museum, the convent, passed from the Benedictines to the Dominicans in the early fifteenth-century. The four saints depicted form part of a larger fresco known as the Madonna of the Shadows. The positions of the saints, all of whom except Saint Lawrence look to the right, are motivated by the position of the Virgin and Child who are seated on a throne in the centre of the composition (which is not included in this detail). Both Saints Lawrence and Peter Martyr (standing on Lawrence’s left) suffered martyrdom, as symbolised by the palms they carry. Saint Lawrence was stoned to death as recorded in the Book of Acts, and the Dominican friar Peter Martyr (c.1205-52) was murdered by two assassins. Peter is often shown with a bloody wound to his head, a reference to the assassins' mortal sword attack upon the friar. The fresco Madonna of the Shadows occupies a prominent position in the section of the convent where the friars and novices lived. As the Dominicans left the individual cells where they slept and studied, they entered the corridor where this fresco is placed. Communal prayer featured in the daily rhythm of the friar’s life. Every evening they would gather in front of this image of the Virgin and Saints to chant the office of Matins. As they prayed and gazed upon Fra Angelico’s figures, the friars must surely have imagined themselves participating in a timeless worship of Christ and His mother.
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