Italy

Repubblica Italiana

26th November 1955 

5th centenary of the death of the artist Fra Angelico.

The stamps depict details of two of his works:

• St. Stephen distributes alms;
• St. Lawrence distributes the goods of the Church.

Fra Angelico (1395-1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence. He was beatified by the pope in 1982.

Catalogue numbers:

Michel IT 953
Stamp Number IT 702
Yvert et Tellier IT 702
Stanley Gibbons IT 922
Unificato IT 790
Sassone IT 790