Imperishable visions: an exhibition of Fra Angelico's work at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art prompts viewers to reconsider where we are artistically, culturally, and even personally today.(PURITY IN ART)

To the painter Fra Angelico, said a French historian, was reserved "the glory of fixing, in a series of imperishable visions, the religious ideal of the middle ages--just at the moment it was about to disappear forever." Now, for the first time ever in America, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is exhibiting a nearly complete collection of the portable works of this painter.

At a time when artistic craftsmanship has so often been devalued, and when negative, shocking, and even anti-Christian content has been regularly elevated by the popular media and even our art museums, we have this exhibit, one we need to attend. We need to take a closer look, remind ourselves again, reconsider, the wonderful roots of Western art.

See the way the areas receiving the gold leaf have been burnished to shine, embossed or scribed into ever-varying patterns. Pay attention to the way the frames of the altarpieces are incorporated into the design. And, more than that, behold the way Angelico not only embellishes with gold but fully incorporates it into the color scheme. And the way the colors set each other off as beautifully as Giotto's.

Notice the attention to detail in costume after costume, wing after marvelous angel wing, always changing in color and in pattern. Look at Angelico's sense of composition, which according to a great American muralist, Edwin Blashfield, is "large and noble.... Some of his door panels like the 'Flight into Egypt,' enlarged to colossal size, might worthily decorate a church wall."

Become aware of the logical way the artist is handling the new element called perspective. And the articulation of the details of the architecture and landscape, the amazing variety of handling he applies to landscape--from tapestry-like botanical studies that would do William Morris proud; to fine, classically rendered trees; and even to occasional essays into blotchy impressionism.

Look at the subtle modeling of the faces, look at the faces themselves, full, for the first time in the Renaissance, of not only expression but personality. Surely, said Michelangelo, "the good monk visited paradise and was allowed to choose his models there."

Look too to the larger expression of the individuals Angelico portrays. "Friar Angelico paints with perhaps the Flemish hope, to give us the Virgin of Virgins: clothed in a mantle of stars, with the beauty and gesture of the young girl, expressive of the white soul within. A wide space separates the other worshippers of beauty--Botticelli and Lippi, and their companions--from the blessed monk, Angelico, whose wish and ...