Question 1

True or false: Fra Angelico painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Accepted Answer

False. The Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, decades after Fra Angelico’s death in 1455.

Question 2

True or false: Fra Angelico's birth name was Guido di Pietro before he became a Dominican friar.

Accepted Answer

True. Fra Angelico was born Guido di Pietro in Vicchio, Tuscany. He took the name Fra Giovanni da Fiesole when he entered the Dominican order.

Question 3

True or false: Fra Angelico was born in the city of Venice.

Accepted Answer

False. Fra Angelico was born in Vicchio, a town in Tuscany near Florence, not in Venice. His works are primarily Florentine.

Question 4

True or false: Fra Angelico was a student of the famous Renaissance painter Masaccio.

Accepted Answer

False. Fra Angelico was older than Masaccio and was influenced by him, but there is no evidence they were student and teacher.

Question 5

True or false: Fra Angelico was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982.

Accepted Answer

True. Fra Angelico was declared 'Blessed' by Pope John Paul II in 1982, a confirmation of his cultus. He is not canonized.

Question 6

True or false: Fra Angelico died in Florence and is buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce.

Accepted Answer

False. Fra Angelico died in Rome in 1455 and was buried in the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, not in Florence.

Question 7

True or false: Fra Angelico declined the position of Archbishop of Florence offered by Pope Eugene IV.

Accepted Answer

True. He refused the archbishopric, recommending fellow Dominican Antoninus Pierozzi instead, whom Pope Eugene IV then appointed. Fra Angelico preferred a humble friar’s life.

Question 8

True or false: Fra Angelico painted frescoes in the Vatican's Chapel of Pope Nicholas V.

Accepted Answer

True. Fra Angelico decorated the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V in the Vatican with frescoes of Saints Stephen and Lawrence between 1447 and 1449.

Fra Angelico Trivia Questions