......O COME ALL YE FAITHFULL............

.......It's Christmas week, well at least it is here in the UK, and we managed to avoid the worst of the commercial excess by going off to France, which seems to have a much more civilised and austere approach to the festivities. The painting that I thought appropriate to discuss this week , however , is Italian , and seems to me in both its simplicity and its setting  to capture both the innocence and clarity of the nativity as seen through the eyes of a society untrammelled by the ravages of consumerism.

Fra Angelico's painting of the Nativity is a fresco adorning the walls of Cell 23 in the monastery of San Marco in Florence, at once both priceless and worthless, one of a complete series of frescoes adorning this most sublime and spiritual of buildings. Worthless as because it cannot be removed from its setting it exists outside of the art world, priceless because of where it is, painted by a master. The upper floor of the Monastery of San Marco, a retreat from the secular world, is adorned by the fresco series painted by Fra Angelico ; mounting the stairs, rounding the corner of the half landing, one approaches his masterpiece, The Annunciation , from below , as if rising to meet the Holiest of Holy scenes, Ground Zero for the fresco series to follow. The monks cells branch left and right then, off the central corridor, each cell a plain, simple room , a small window - and in each a single fresco to contemplate. The quiet, the peace , the simplicity of the setting all serve to enhance the spiritual nature of the singular image which now becomes the focus of the monk's world.

I think what appeals to me about frescoes , outside of their particular artistic content , is the fact that in most instances they remain in situ, still in the context for which they were painted - and still belonging to the people for whom they were painted, Thus one can still see Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Massacio's frescoes at the Brancacci Chapel , Tiepolo's ceiling frescoes in Venice, particularly the one in the Church of Santa Maria dei Gesuati  where the painting is designed to be lit by the reflected light off the adjacent canal outside.
Compare these to Duccio's altarpiece in Sienna , much restored but with some component parts lost , some scattered all over the world, including a small panel that is now in the National in London, or Ucello's series of three paintings The Battle of San Romano , painted for the Medici Palace in Florence but again  now scattered - one, again , in the National, one in the Louvre and one in the Uffizi. The chances of seeing the three together again in their original context is zero, and to an extent the dynamic narrative of the series is now lost.

Frescoes still exist within their original context , belonging to the people, their public. Still in their place , still with their message to deliver, and this to me gives them a uniqueness , a sense of place as well as purpose.

Adeste fideles , laeti triumphates , Venita , venite in Bethlehem.