The Annunciation (detail; 1425–26), Fra Angelico. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. © 2019. Museo Nacional del Prado

MADRID - The exhibition Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance will investigate the beginnings of the Florentine Renaissance art in the 1420s and 1430s with the friar painter Fra Angelico at the centre of the story. Fra Angelico is one of the great masters of Renaissance art and responsible for its early achievements in Florence alongside the painters Masaccio, Masolino, Uccello and Filippo Lippi, the sculptors Ghiberti, Donatello, and Nanni di Banco, and the architect Brunelleschi.

The exhibition will focus around The Annunciation, as well as two other recently acquired paintings by Angelico: the Alba Madonna and the Funeral of Saint Anthony Abbot. Both paintings come from the collections of the Duke of Alba.

28 MAY - 15 SEP 2019

The Annunciation (1425–26), Fra Angelico. Gold and tempera on panel. 194cm x 194cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. © 2019. Museo Nacional del Prado

Virgin of the Pomegranate (c. 1424–25), Fra Angelico. Tempera on panel. 187cm x 59cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. © 2019. Museo Nacional del Prado

 Funeral of Saint Anthony Abbot. Fra Angelico. 1426 - 1430. Tempera on poplar panel, 19,7 x 29,3 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. © 2019. Museo Nacional del Prado

Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1429, Fra Angelico. Museo di San Marco, Florence. Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado

Eighteen Dominican Monks, c. 1421–24, Fra Angelico. National Gallery, London. Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado

Christ on the Cross, c. 1493–98, Pedro Berruguete. Diputación de Segovia. Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado