The art critic Giorgio Vasari offered a succinct description of Fra Angelico, who was also known as Beato Angelico. He called him a man of “rare and perfect talent.” Born around 1395, the Dominican friar pioneered the use of light and perspective to create spatial depth in figurative painting. In his 1439 San Marco Altarpiece, in Florence, he depicted saints standing in believable space, grouped naturally, as if in quiet conversation. Fra Angelico’s innovation would influence a generation of younger painters, including Giovanni Bellini, Perugino, and Raphael. This exhibition explores his impact on successors such as Filippo Lippi, Masaccio, Lorenzo Monaco, and others. Indeed, it presents Fra Angelico as a founding father of the Renaissance. —Elena Clavarino