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

He was familiar to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John).

In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official. Fiesole is sometimes misunderstood as a part of his legal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed 'the Angelic' ".

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