Fra Angelico’s earliest surviving altarpiece, created for the convent he had joined as a young man, has been returned to its original setting after a painstaking restoration project. Fra Angelico, born Guido di Pietro, made the Fiesole Altarpiece between 1420 and 1423 for the church at San Domenico in Fiesole, which he had joined around this period. Around them gather a group of eight angels as well as four saints: St Barnabas, St Thomas Aquinas, St Dominic and St Peter Martyr. A detail showing three of Fra Angelico’s angels after restorationBefore the restoration, the varnish on Fra Angelico’s painting “was very old, very yellow”, says Simonetta Brandolini, the president of Friends of Florence, which funded the project. With the help of infrared reflectography, conservators uncovered Fra Angelico’s original design for a throne, which had been hidden behind Di Credi’s application of azure lapis lazuli.