25/08/2026
Thoughts about the exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, San Marco and the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ‘Rothko in Florence’ which ended last weekend.
(When you forget to post something 😅)
Rothko and Fra Angelico
The connection between Mark Rothko and Fra Angelico’s frescoes at San Marco is one of the most interesting links between modern and early Renaissance art. When Rothko visited Florence, he was struck by the way Fra Angelico’s paintings worked within the space of the convent. They were not simply pictures to look at. They were part of an experience of prayer and meditation.
William Hood’s discussion of the ‘Manners of Praying’helps to explain this connection.
1. The cell as a private space
At San Marco, the frescoes were painted inside small monk’s cells. They were not made for a public audience. Each image was intended for one friar, alone and in silence.
This is important when thinking about Rothko. He also wanted his paintings to be experienced without the distraction of other artworks. He disliked his paintings being treated simply as objects in a gallery.
Rothko wanted to create a space around the painting. The low lighting and enclosed rooms he preferred helped to create an experience closer to a chapel or a monastic cell.
2. From narrative to mental vision
Hood argues that Fra Angelico’s frescoes are not simply illustrations of biblical stories. They also represent acts of meditation.
For example, in The Mocking of Christ in Cell 7, the strange floating head and hands are not meant to be a realistic scene. They suggest the way the image might appear in the mind of someone meditating on Christ’s suffering.
This is similar to what Rothko wanted to achieve. He moved away from painting recognisable subjects. Instead, he used colour and scale to create a psychological experience.
He wanted the viewer to feel something rather than simply recognise something. He spoke about emotions such as tragedy, ecstasy and doom.
3. The body as part of the experience
Hood also discusses the importance of physical gestures in Dominican prayer. Kneeling, standing and bowing were not just actions. They were ways of preparing the body and mind for prayer.
This has an interesting connection with Rothko’s paintings.
Rothko was very conscious of scale. He often made his paintings large and wanted viewers to stand close to them. The colour fields could surround the viewer’s field of vision.
The body therefore becomes part of the experience. You stand still. You look. You become absorbed in the painting. This is quite different from walking past a small picture in a museum.
4. The secular chapel
The Dominican convent at San Marco was designed around a life of prayer and contemplation. There was no clear separation between everyday life and spiritual life.
Rothko seems to have been looking for something similar, but in a modern and secular context.
This becomes most obvious in the Rothko Chapel. Like San Marco, it is a space designed for quiet contemplation. The paintings are not there simply to be admired. The space, the light, the scale and the paintings all work together.
This also makes me think about the exhibition at the Strozzi Palace.
Perhaps one of the problems was that the paintings were removed from the kind of environment Rothko had imagined for them. The setting was very different from a small, quiet cell or chapel. The paintings were part of a larger exhibition, surrounded by architecture, people and other things competing for attention.
Some clients actually told me that they did not ‘feel’ the paintings. They did not experience that sense of private contemplation or of being absorbed by the paintings.
For me, this is an important point. Maybe the question is not only what the paintings are, but how they are presented.
At San Marco, the space helps the painting work. With Rothko, the same seems to be true. The darkness, the scale, the distance from the viewer and the silence are all part of the experience.
Without these things, something can be lost.
Both Fra Angelico and Rothko saw painting as something that could affect the viewer deeply. The aim was not simply to show an image or demonstrate artistic skill.
The aim was to create an experience.
In that sense, Rothko’s paintings can be seen as a modern version of what Fra Angelico was doing at San Marco: using art, space and the body to create a moment of private contemplation.
