Fra Filippo Lippi

The Italian painter Fra Filippo Lippi (ca. 1406-1469) was an important link between the early and late 15th-century Florentine painters.

Filippo Lippi was born in Florence. He took his vows in 1421 in the monastery S. Maria del Carmine, where Masaccio frescoed the Brancacci Chapel in the church (1426-1427). By 1430 Lippi is mentioned in church documents as "painter." Masaccio's influence, as well as Donatello's, can be seen in Lippi's early works, such as the Tarquinia Madonna of 1437 (National Gallery, Rome) and the Annunciation (S. Lorenzo, Florence) and Barbadori Altar (Louvre, Paris), both begun in 1437/1438. However, the severity of Masaccio and Donatello was mitigated by Lippi, who was instrumental in salvaging from the Gothic past the lyrical expressiveness of a linear mode which Masaccio had all but given up for modeling in chiaroscuro.

Toward the middle of the 15th century Lippi's pictures became more finely articulated and his surface design more complex. It is probable that he had a large workshop, and the hand of assistants may be observed in the important fresco decoration started in 1452 in the choir chapel of the Prato Cathedral. After delays and strong protests this commission was finally completed in 1466. The cycle, a highly important monument of Early Renaissance painting, demonstrates Lippi's increasingly more mature style, revealing him to be witty, original, and well versed in all the artistic accomplishments of his time, to which he himself contributed. Through linear perspective Lippi was able to render a convincing illusion of recession and plausible three-dimensional figures. He knew how to express emotions, and he was a keen observer of nature.

Lippi painted astonishing portrait likenesses and combined figures and space with an animated surface rhythm, the best example of which can be seen in the Feast of Herod, one of the last scenes in the Prato cycle. During his stay at Prato he was the cause of a scandal (later resolved by papal indulgence): he ran off with a nun, Lucrezia Buti, who bore him two children, one of whom, Filippino Lippi (ca. 1457-1504), was also a painter. In the Prato frescoes as well as in his contemporary panel pictures, such as the Madonna with Two Angels (Uffizi Gallery, Florence), or in the exquisite tondo of the Madonna (Pitti Palace, Florence), Filippo Lippi anticipated later developments in 15th-century painting. In these pictures are to be found the sources of Sandro Botticelli, Lippi's most illustrious pupil.

Lippi's innovations extended also to iconography. In his quest for realism he introduced the "bourgeoise" Madonna: the type of contemporary Florentine lady elegantly dressed in the fashion of the time with the hair on her forehead plucked to stress the height of it. He also introduced the subject of the Madonna adoring the Child in the woods (Museum of Berlin, and Uffizi, Florence). Finally, Lippi was one of the first (perhaps the first) painters to introduce the tondo shape for devotional pictures, as in the Pitti Madonna or the Adoration of the Magi (National Gallery, Washington).

Lippi died at Spoleto while painting the frescoes in the apse of the Cathedral, a task completed by his pupils.

Further Reading

In English an excellent discussion of Lippi is in Bernard Berenson, The Italian Painters of the Renaissance (1952). Edward C. Strutt, Fra Filippo Lippi (1901), is outdated. □

Lippi, Fra Filippo (b Florence, c.1406; d Spoleto, 10 Oct. 1469). Florentine painter. He was brought up as an unwanted child in the Carmelite friary of S. Maria del Carmine, where he took his vows in 1421. Unlike the Dominican Fra Angelico, however, Lippi was a reluctant friar and had a scandalous love affair with a nun, Lucrezia Buti, who bore his son Filippino and a daughter Alessandra. The couple were released from their vows and allowed to marry, but Lippi continued to sign himself ‘Frater Philippus’. His biography (romantically embroidered to include capture by Moorish pirates) is one of the most colourful in Vasari's Lives and has given rise to the picture of a worldly Renaissance artist, rebelling against the discipline of the Church—an image reflected in Robert Browning's poem about Lippi (‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ in Men and Women, 1855). He must undoubtedly have had a more eventful life than most, but there is little documentary evidence of his character and personality.

Vasari writes that Lippi was inspired to become a painter by watching Masaccio at work in the Carmine church, and his early work, notably the Tarquinia Madonna (1437, Gal. Naz., Rome) is certainly overwhelmingly influenced by him. From about 1440, however, his style changed direction, becoming more linear and preoccupied with decorative motifs—thin, fluttering draperies, brocades, etc. Lippi is associated particularly with paintings of the Virgin and Child, which are sometimes in the form of tondi, a format he was among the first to use—a beautiful example (c.1453), showing the wistful delicacy and exquisite pale lighting that characterizes his best work, is in the Pitti, Florence. Another formal innovation with which Lippi is closely linked is the sacra conversazione—his Barbadori Altarpiece (begun 1437, Louvre, Paris) is sometimes claimed as the earliest example of the type. As a fresco painter Lippi's finest achievement is his cycle on the lives of St Stephen and St John the Baptist (1452–66) in Prato Cathedral.

Lippi was highly regarded in his day (he was patronized by the Medici, who came to his aid when he was imprisoned and tortured for alleged fraud) and his influence is seen in the work of numerous artists, most notably Botticelli, who was probably his pupil. Four centuries later he was one of the major sources for the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism.

Lippi, Fra Filippo (c.1406–69). Florentine painter. He was brought up as an unwanted child in the Carmelite friary of S. Maria del Carmine, where he took his vows in 1421. Unlike the Dominican Fra Angelico, however, Lippi was a reluctant friar and had a scandalous love affair with a nun, Lucrezia Buti, who bore his son Filippino Lippi and a daughter Alessandra. The couple were released from their vows and allowed to marry, but Lippi still signed himself ‘Frater Philippus’. His biography (romantically embroidered to include capture by Moorish pirates) is one of the most colourful in Vasari's Lives and has given rise to the picture of a worldly Renaissance artist, rebelling against the discipline of the Church—an image reflected in Robert Browning's poem about Lippi (‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ in Men and Women, 1855). He must certainly have had a more eventful life than most, but there is little documentary evidence of his character and personality. Vasari writes that Lippi was inspired to become a painter by watching Masaccio at work in the Carmine church, and his early work, notably the Tarquinia Madonna (1437, Gal. Naz., Rome) is certainly overwhelmingly influenced by him. From about 1440, however, his style changed direction, becoming more linear and preoccupied with decorative motifs—thin, fluttering draperies, brocades, etc. Lippi is associated particularly with paintings of the Virgin and Child, which are sometimes in the form of tondi, a format he was among the first to use—a beautiful example (c.1453), showing the wistful delicacy and exquisite pale lighting that characterizes his best work, is in the Pitti, Florence. Another formal innovation with which Lippi is closely associated is the sacra conversazione—his Barbadori Altarpiece (begun 1437, Louvre, Paris) is sometimes claimed as the earliest example of the type. As a fresco painter Lippi's finest achievement is his cycle on the lives of St Stephen and St John the Baptist (1452–66) in Prato Cathedral. Lippi was highly regarded in his day (he was patronized by the Medici, who came to his aid when he was imprisoned and tortured for alleged fraud) and his influence is seen in the work of numerous artists, most notably Botticelli, who was probably his pupil. Four centuries later he was one of the major sources for the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism.

Lippi, Fra Filippo (1406–69) Florentine painter. His early work shows the influence of Masaccio, but from c.1440 he developed his own style. His most characteristic subject was the Virgin and Child, which he sometimes painted in an innovative circular format. His finest fresco cycle is in Prato cathedral and depicts the lives of St Stephen and St John. Lippi was a major influence on the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

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Lippi, Fra Filippo (c.1406–69), Italian painter. Brought up as an orphan by the Carmelites in Florence, he took the habit in 1420, but was released from his vows c.1461 and allowed to marry. His pictures include the Barbadore Altarpiece (1437), the Coronation of the Virgin (1441), and the fresco cycles in Prato of St John the Baptist and St Stephen (1452–65). He influenced the development of devotional art.