View source for Filippino Lippi

{{Short description|Italian painter (1457–1504)}}
{{Distinguish|Filippo Lippi}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Filippino Lippi
| image         = Filippino Lippi 007.jpg
| image_size    = 180px
| caption       = Self-portrait – detail from the [[Brancacci Chapel]] fresco ''The Dispute with Simon Magus'' (1481–1482), Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy
| birth_name    = Filippo Lippi
| birth_date    = probably 1457
| birth_place   = [[Prato]], [[Republic of Florence]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1504|4|18|1457|4|15|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Florence]], Republic of Florence
| nationality   = [[Italians|Italian]]
| known_for     = Painting, [[fresco]]
| training      = [[Filippo Lippi]]
| movement      = [[Italian Renaissance]]
| notable_works = ''[[Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard (Filippino Lippi)|Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard]]''<br>''[[Adoration of the Magi (Filippino Lippi)|Adoration of the Magi]]''
| patrons       =
| awards        = 
}}

[[Image:Bernardo claraval filippino lippi.jpg|right|thumb|280px|''[[Apparition of The Virgin to St Bernard (Filippino Lippi)|Apparition of The Virgin to St. Bernard]]'' (1485–1487)]]
[[Image:Lippi, Filippino - Allegory of Music (Erato) - Gemäldegalerie Berlin.jpg|thumb|280px|right|''Allegory of Music'' (c. 1500), tempera on panel, 61 × 51 cm. Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany]]

'''Filippino Lippi''' (probably 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an [[Italian Renaissance painter]] mostly working in [[Florence]], Italy during the later years of the [[Early Renaissance]] and first few years of the [[High Renaissance]]. He also worked in Rome for a period from 1488, and later in the [[Milan]] area and [[Bologna]].

He worked in oils, [[tempera]] and fresco, mostly painting religious subjects, with a few portraits and secular allegories or scenes from classical mythology.

== Biography ==
Filippino Lippi was born, probably in 1457, at [[Prato]], [[Tuscany]],<ref>RKD, Treccani</ref> the illegitimate son to [[Lucrezia Buti]] and the painter [[Fra Filippo Lippi]]. The couple had both broken vows of celibacy, and though after Filippino's birth they received a [[Dispensation (Catholic canon law)|papal dispensation]] to marry (arranged by [[Lorenzo di Medici]]), [[Vasari]] says that they never did. Filippino's sister Alessandra was born in 1465. 

Filippino first trained under his father in his workshop. They moved to [[Spoleto]], where Filippino served as workshop assistant during the construction of [[Spoleto Cathedral]]. When his father died in 1469, Filippino was aged twelve and was among the assistants to his father who completed the [[frescoes]] with ''Storie della Vergine'' ("[[Life of the Virgin]]") in the cathedral. 

Filippino later completed his apprenticeship in the workshop of [[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli]], who had been a pupil of Filippino's father. In the 1472 records of the Painters' [[guild]] it is noted that Botticelli had only Filippino Lippi as an assistant, and that he was living in his master's house. The two artists often worked together on the same project. The shared works include the panels belonging to a later dismantled pair of ''[[Cassone|cassoni]]'', the panels being now divided among the [[Louvre]], the [[National Gallery of Canada]], the [[Musée Condé|Musée Condé in Chantilly]], and the Galleria Pallavicini in Rome.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nelson|first=Jonathan Katz|date=2009|title="Botticelli" or "Filippino"? How to Define Authorship in a Renaissance Workshop|journal=Sandro Botticelli and Herbert Horne: New Research|pages=137–167}}</ref> Works by Botticelli and Filippino from these years include many paintings of the ''Madonna and Child'' which are often difficult to distinguish from one another.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nelson|first=Jonathan Katz|date=2009|title="Botticelli" or "Filippino"? How to Define Authorship in a Renaissance Workshop|journal=Sandro Botticelli and Herbert Horne: New Research|pages=137–167}}</ref>
[[Image:Filippino Lippi (ca. 1457–1504) - Mystiek huwelijk van de heilige Catharina (1501) - Bologna San Domenico - 25-04-2012 15-19-08.JPG|thumb|280px|''Mystic Wedding of St Catherine'' (1501) [[Basilica of San Domenico]], Bologna, Italy]]

Filippino's early solo works greatly resemble those of Botticelli, but perhaps with less sensitivity and subtlety. The first ones (dating from 1475 onward) were attributed to an anonymous "'''Amico di Sandro'''" (i.e. "Friend of Botticelli"), a term introduced by [[Bernard Berenson]] in 1899, though by 30 years later Berenson's "lists" ascribed most of them to Lippi.<ref>Davies, 287</ref> Eventually Lippi's style evolved, becoming more personal and effective during the period 1480–1485. Works of this early period include: the ''Madonnas'' of Berlin, London, and Washington, D.C., the ''Journeys of Tobia'' of the [[Galleria Sabauda]], Turin, the ''Madonna of the Sea'' of the [[Galleria dell'Accademia]], Florence, and the ''Histories of Ester''.

Together with [[Pietro Perugino|Perugino]] (another pupil of his father), [[Domenico Ghirlandaio|Ghirlandaio]], and Botticelli, Filippino Lippi worked on the decoration of [[Lorenzo de' Medici]]'s villa at Spedaletto. On 31 December 1482, he was commissioned to decorate a wall of the Sala dell'Udienza of the [[Palazzo Vecchio]] in [[Florence]], a work never begun. 

Soon after, probably in 1483–84, he was called to complete [[Tommaso Masaccio|Masaccio]]'s decoration of the [[Brancacci Chapel]] in the [[Santa Maria del Carmine di Firenze]], that had been left unfinished when the artist died in 1428. There Filippino painted ''Stories of Saint Peter'', in the following frescoes: ''Quarrel with Simon Magus in face of Nero'', ''Resurrection of the Son of Teophilus'', ''Saint Peter Jailed'', ''Liberation'', and ''Crucifixion of Saint Peter''. Filippino's self-portrait at age twenty-five is at the right hand portion of the central panel, Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St. Peter (''see'' detail at info box).  

Filippino Lippi's work on the Sala degli Otto di Pratica, in the [[Palazzo Vecchio]], was completed on 20 February 1486.<ref name="Rowlands, Eliot W. 2003">Rowlands, Eliot W., and Marilyn Bradshaw. "Lippi family." Grove Art Online. 1 January 2003. Oxford University Press.</ref> It is now in the [[Uffizi|Uffizi Gallery]]. At about this time, Piero di Francesco del Pugliese asked him to paint the altarpiece with the ''[[Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard (Filippino Lippi)|Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard]]'', which is now in the [[Badia Fiorentina]], Florence. This is Filippino Lippi's most popular painting: a composition of unreal items, with its very particular elongated figures, backed by a phantasmagorical scenario of rocks and almost anthropomorphic trunks. The work is dated to 1485–1487.<ref name="Rowlands, Eliot W. 2003"/>

Later, Filippino worked for Tanai de' Nerli in Florence's [[Santo Spirito, Florence|Santo Spirito]] church.

On 21 April 1487, [[Filippo Strozzi the Elder|Filippo Strozzi]] asked him to decorate the Strozzi family chapel in [[Santa Maria Novella]] with ''Stories of St. John Evangelist and St. Philip''. He worked on this commission on and off over a long time. He only completed it in 1503, after Strozzi's death. The windows with musical themes, in the same chapel, also designed by Filippino, were completed between June and July 1503. These paintings have been considered as influenced by the political and religious crisis in Florence at the time: the theme of the fresco, the clash between [[Christianity]] and [[Paganism]], was hotly debated during those years and in connection with the friar [[Girolamo Savonarola]].

Filippino depicted his characters in a landscape that recreated the [[ancient world]] in its finest details, showing the influence of the [[Grotesque#Etymology in Renaissance|Grottesco]] style he had seen during his time in [[Rome]]. He created an "animated", mysterious, fantastic, but disquieting style, showing the unreality of nightmares. Thus, Filippino portrayed ruthless executioners with grim faces, who raged against the [[Saint]]s. In the scene of ''St. Philip expelling a monster from the temple'', the statue of the [[paganism|pagan]] deity is represented as a living figure challenging the Christian saint.

In 1488, now in his early thirties, Lippi went to [[Rome]], where [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] had advised Cardinal [[Oliviero Carafa]] to entrust him with the decoration of the [[Carafa Chapel|family chapel]] in [[Santa Maria sopra Minerva]]. The frescoes he produced there show a new inspiration, different from his earlier works, but confirm Lippi's continued research on the themes of the classical era. He completed the series by 1493.
[[File:Filippino Lippi, Adorazione dei Magi, 1496, 01.jpg|thumb|309x309px|[[Adoration of the Magi (Filippino Lippi)|Adoration of the Magi]] (1496) tempera grassa on wood, [[Uffizi]], Florence, Italy]]

Lippi returned to Florence some time between 1491 and 1494. Works of this period include: ''[[Apparition of Christ to Madonna|Apparition of Christ to the Virgin]]'' ({{Circa|1493}}, now in [[Munich]]), ''[[Adoration of the Magi (Filippino Lippi)|Adoration of the Magi]]'' (1496, for the church of San Donato in Scopeto, now in the [[Uffizi]]), ''Sacrifice of Laocoön'' (end of the century, for the villa of [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] at Poggio a Caiano), ''St. John Baptist and Maddalena'' (Valori Chapel in San Procolo, Florence, inspired by the work of [[Luca Signorelli]]).

In addition Filippino worked away from his home town, at the [[Certosa di Pavia]], a [[Carthusian]] monastery or Charterhouse located outside [[Pavia]], and also in [[Prato]], where, in 1503, he completed the ''Tabernacle of the Christmas Song'', now in the City Museum. In 1501 Lippi painted the ''Mystic Wedding of St. Catherine'' for the [[Basilica of San Domenico]] in [[Bologna]].

Lippi's final work was the ''[[Deposition (Annunziata)|Deposition]]'' for the [[Santissima Annunziata, Florence |Santissima Annunziata church in Florence]], a work which was  left unfinished at his death.

Filippino Lippi died on 18 April 1504, aged 47. It is a sign of his fame and reputation that on the day of his burial all the workshops of the city closed in his honor.

== Modern reception ==
The art critic [[Paul George Konody]] wrote of Lippi that "some of his qualities show him to be the most subtle psychologist of his time, the most modern in spirit of all the artists of the Renaissance".<ref>Jennie Irene Mix, "Great Pictures and Their Painters", ''The Pittsburgh Sunday Post'' (11 September 1910), p. 32.</ref>

== Major works ==
* ''Madonna with Child, St. Anthony of Padua and a Friar'' (before 1480)<small>—Tempera on panel, 57 × 41.5&nbsp;cm, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|Museum of Fine Arts]], [[Budapest]]</small>
* ''The [[Coronation of the Virgin]]'' (c. 1480)<small>—Tempera on panel, 90.2 × 223&nbsp;cm, [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Washington, D.C.]]</small>
* ''[[Tobias and the Angel (Filippino Lippi)|Tobias and the Angel]]'' (c. 1480)<small>—Tempera on panel, 33 × 23&nbsp;cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.</small>
* ''[[Three Angels with Young Tobias]] ''(1485)<small>—Oil on panel, 100 × 127&nbsp;cm, [[Galleria Sabauda]], [[Turin]]</small>
* ''Portrait of an Old Man'' (1485)<small>—Detached fresco, 47 × 38&nbsp;cm, [[Uffizi]], [[Florence]]</small>
* ''Self-portrait''<small>—Detached fresco on flat tile, 50 × 31&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence</small>
* ''Portrait of a Youth'' (c. 1485)<small>—Panel, 51 × 35.5&nbsp;cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.</small>
* ''Signoria Altarpiece (Pala degli Otto)'' (1486)<small>—Tempera on panel, 355 × 255&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence</small>
* ''[[Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard (Filippino Lippi)|Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard]]'' (1486)<small>—Oil on panel, 210 × 195&nbsp;cm, [[Badia Fiorentina|Church of Badia]], Florence</small>
* ''[[Annunciation with St. Thomas and Cardinal Carafa]]'' (1488–1493)<small>—Fresco, [[Santa Maria sopra Minerva]], [[Rome]]</small>
* ''[[Madonna with Child and Saints (Filippino Lippi)|Madonna with Child and Saints]]'' (c. 1488)<small>—Oil on panel, [[Santo Spirito, Florence|Santo Spirito]], Florence</small>
* ''St. Jerome'' (1490s)<small>—Oil on panel, 136 × 71&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence</small>
* ''[[Apparition of Christ to the Virgin]]'' ({{Circa|1493}})<small>—Oil on panel, 156.1 × 146.7&nbsp;cm, [[Alte Pinakothek]], [[Munich]]</small>
* ''[[Adoration of the Magi (Filippino Lippi)|Adoration of the Magi]]'' (1496)<small>—Oil on panel, Uffizi, Florence</small>
* ''Madonna and Child with Saints'' (1498)<small>—Fresco, 239 × 141 × 71&nbsp;cm, Museo Civico, [[Prato]]</small>
* ''[[Allegory (Filippino Lippi)|Allegory]]'' (c. 1498)<small>—Oil on panel, 29 × 22&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence</small>
* ''Allegory of Music (Erato)'' (c. 1500)<small>—Tempera on panel, 61 × 51&nbsp;cm, [[Museum Island|Staatliche Museen]], [[Berlin]]</small>
* ''Crucifixion'', c. 1501<small>— tempera on panel, 31.2 × 23.4&nbsp;cm, Museo Civico, Prato</small>
* ''[[Marriage of St. Catherine (Filippino Lippi)|Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine]]'' (c. 1501–1503)<small>—Panel, [[Basilica di San Domenico]], [[Bologna]]</small>
* ''Madonna and Child, St. Stefan and St. John the Baptist'' (1502–1503)<small>—Tempera on panel, 132 × 118&nbsp;cm, Museo Civico, Prato</small>
* ''[[Deposition (Filippino Lippi)|Deposition]]'' (1504, finished by [[Perugino]] in 1507)<small>—Oil on panel, 333 × 218&nbsp;cm, [[Galleria dell'Accademia]], Florence</small>

== School works ==
Following works are permitted to be cited as Filippino's [[school work]]s.
* ''the Madonna, Child and St. John''<small>—[[Tondo (art)|tondo]], [[House of Keglević|Keglevich]] collection, [[Budapest]],</small><ref>Gábor Térey, [[The Burlington Magazine]], page 183, L., 1927.</ref>
* ''Cenacolo di S. Apollonia''<small>—[[Florence]]</small><ref name="G. Bernardini">''G. Bernardini'', Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione ([[Ministry of Public Education (Italy)]]), year 1912, page 291.</ref>
* ''the Virgin giving her [[Girdle of Thomas|girdle to St. Thomas]]''<small>—[[Florence]]</small><ref name="G. Bernardini" />
* ''St. Anthony Abbot''<small>—[[Florence]]</small><ref name="G. Bernardini" />

== Gallery ==
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" caption="Works and details">
File:Filippino, morte di lucrezia.JPG|''Death of Lucretia'' (1478–1480)
File:Filippino Lippi - The Coronation of the Virgin (detail) - WGA13070.jpg |The ''[[Coronation of the Virgin]]'' (detail) (c. 1480)<br>Tempera on panel, 90.2 × 223&nbsp;cm, [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Washington, D.C.]]
File:Filippino, annunciazione e santi, capodimonte.jpg | ''[[Annunciation with St John the Baptist and St Andrew|Annunciation with St. John the Baptist and St. Andrew]]'', c. 1485
File:Filippino lippi, apparizione, 05.jpg | ''[[Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard (Filippino Lippi)|Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard]]'' (detail) (1486)<br>Oil on panel, 210 × 195&nbsp;cm, Church of Badia, Florence
File:Filippino lippi, apparizione, 01.jpg | ''Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard'' (detail)
File:Filippino lippi, apparizione, 03.jpg | ''Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard'' (detail)
File:Filippino lippi, Apparizione di Cristo alla Madonna 02.JPG | ''[[Apparition of Christ to the Virgin]]'' ({{Circa|1493}})<br>—Oil on panel, 156.1 × 146.7&nbsp;cm, [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich
File:Filippino Lippi - anjos sala degli Otto 2-1.jpg |Angel (detail), Retábulo da Sala Degli Otto, Florence
File:Filippino Lippi Santo Spirito.jpg | ''[[Madonna with Child and Saints (Filippino Lippi)|Madonna with Child and Saints]]'' (c. 1488)<br>Oil on wood, Santo Spirito, Florence
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Brancacci Chapel]]
* [[Carafa Chapel]]
* [[Santa Maria Novella|Strozzi Chapel]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
*[[Martin Davies (museum director)|Davies, Martin]], ''The Earlier Italian Schools'', National Gallery Catalogues, 1961, reprinted 1986, {{ISBN|0901791296}}
* ''The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting'', Volume 12, p.&nbsp;371ff., [[Raimond van Marle]], Hacker Art Books, New York 1970.

== Further reading ==
* [[Paul George Konody]], ''[https://archive.org/details/filippinolippi00konorich/page/n9/mode/2up Filippino Lippi]'' (George Newnes, Ltd., 1905).

=== Historical novels ===
* Linda Proud, ''A Tabernacle for the Sun'' (Godstow Press, 2005), a literary novel set in Florence during the Pazzi Conspiracy, adheres closely to known facts. Filippino features as the closest friend of the narrator, Tommaso dei Maffei, here and in the following two novels of The Botticelli Trilogy.
* Linda Proud, ''Pallas and the Centaur'' (Godstow Press, 2004), deals with the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy and Lorenzo de' Medici's strained relations with his wife and with Poliziano.
* Linda Proud, ''The Rebirth of Venus'' (Godstow Press, 2008), the final volume of ''The Botticelli Trilogy'', covers the 1490s and the death of Lorenzo.
* Linda Proud, ''A Gift for the Magus'' (Godstow Press, 2012), a novel about Fra Filippo Lippi and Cosimo de' Medici. Features Filippino's birth and childhood.

== External links ==
{{Commons-inline|Paintings by Filippino Lippi}}
* [http://www.officinapratese.com Exhibition ''Da Donatello a Lippi. Officina Pratese''] at Museo Civico di Palazzo Pretorio in [[Prato]] (September 2013 – January 2014)
* [http://www.virtualuffizi.com/uffizi1/artista.asp?Autore=Filippino+Lippi Works of Filippino Lippi] at the [[Uffizi|Uffizi Gallery]] in [[Florence]]
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Filippino Lippi|author=Louis Gillet}}
* {{cite EB1911|last=Rossetti|first=William Michael|author-link=William Michael Rossetti|wstitle=Lippi||display=Lippi ''s.v.'' Filippino, or Lippino Lippi|volume=16|page=742}}
*[https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1488.html Filippino Lippi at the National Gallery of Art]

{{Filippino Lippi}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lippi, Filippino}}
[[Category:15th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:Italian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Painters from Tuscany]]
[[Category:People from Prato]]
[[Category:1450s births]]
[[Category:1504 deaths]]
[[Category:Catholic painters]]