For centuries worshippers had credited the “Madonna della Strada” in Rome with healing powers, though no one called it an artistic masterpiece.

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Not only did Fra Giovanni paint like an angel; he was, in his personal life, an angel himself. The friar’s “angelic” style and “rare and perfect talent,” Vasari informs us, were the result of a “simple and devout life.”

From 1998: An introduction to a unique Marian icon.