The Sermon on the Mount

Seated on a bare mountain, Christ raises his hand to deliver the Sermon on the Mount, his longest teaching, which opens with the Beatitudes - 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' (Matthew 5-7). The twelve apostles sit in a hushed ring on the rocky slope. Fra Angelico painted this in a friar's cell of the convent of San Marco in Florence, where he and his assistants covered the walls with deliberately spare, quiet scenes as aids to monastic prayer. Stripped of gold and ornament, the fresco's pale color and simple geometry are meant not to dazzle but to still the mind for contemplation.