If ever a son of the Church toiled for her honour and for the happiness of mankind it was he.
There are examples of Fra Angelico's work elsewhere in Florence; the large picture in Room I of this gallery; the large altar-piece at the Uffizi, with certain others; the series of mural paintings in the cells of S.Marco; and his pictures will be found not only elsewhere in Florence and Italy but in the chief galleries of the world; for he was very assiduous.

We have an excellent example at the National Gallery, No.

663; but this little room gives us the artist and rhapsodist most completely.

In looking at his pictures, three things in particular strike the mind: the skill with which he composed them; his mastery of light; and--and here he is unique--the pleasure he must have had in painting them.

All seem to have been play; he enjoyed the toil exactly as a child enjoys the labour of building a house with toy bricks.