God the Father

Fra Angelico's God the Father, painted around 1425 for the Fondation de France, is a panel that likely formed the pinnacle or apex of a multi-tiered altarpiece. The image of God the Father blessing from above was a standard element in Italian polyptych design, crowning the altarpiece's hierarchical structure. Fra Angelico — born Guido di Pietro, known in religion as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole — was a Dominican friar whose painting practice was inseparable from his spiritual vocation. Working primarily for his own order and for Florentine civic and private patrons, he created some of the most luminous and spiritually powerful images in the history of European art.

The half-length figure of the Almighty is rendered with Fra Angelico's characteristic luminous modeling, the blessing gesture and open book painted with the precision and reverence appropriate to the highest figure in the altarpiece hierarchy.