Fra Filippo Lippi.

 Fra Filippo Lippi was born in 1406 in Florence, both of his parents died when he was a child. Filippo was put into the Carmelite monastery in Florence in 1421 by his aunt, who had taken over the care of the youngster but wanted him off her hands. He became yet another great Florentine painter and produced many memorable renaissance art works.

 It seems very likely that he was a pupil of Masaccio, he is recorded as a painter in 1430 a period when Masaccio was painting the Brancacci Chapel.

The next dated work is the Tarquinia Madonna of 1437 . 

TheTarquinia Madonna

Tempera on panel, 114x65 cm. (w)

 Commissioned by Giovanni Vitelleschi, archbishop of Florence for his native city of Tarquinia, this painting is inspired by Masaccio with its large volumes. The rather fat, and quite ugly, child also show a trend towards Donatello's work.

 In 1452 Filippo was appointed chaplain of a convent in Florence, and it is recorded that he lived in abject poverty. He began work on a series of frescoes for the choir of Prato Cathedral and also met Lucrezia Buti, a lady placed under the guardianship of the local nuns. Filippo asked permission to paint Lucrezia and the result was a romance that resulted in the birth of their son, Filippino, in 1457/58.

 Filippino Lippi followed in his father's footsteps and also became a famous painter.

 The frescoes of stories from St Stephen and St John the Baptist are considered to be among Fra Filippo Lippi's most important works. These two cycles of frescoes, painted on opposing walls at Prato Cathedral, are balanced. The birth of the saints face each other, the mid range mirrors their life work and their deaths are shown at the bottom. Perhaps the most famous scene is  the Feast of Herod, a gruesome story depicted as a Florentine dinner party with the guests witnessing a beautiful dancer who ultimately presents her master with a severed head!  

Feast of Herod c1452-1460. Prato Cathedral. (w)

Stories from St Stephen and St John the Baptist. Prato Cathedral. (W)

 The Coronation of the Virgin of 1441 was painted for S. Ambrogio and shows the Virgin surrounded by saints, angels and monks. 

The Coronation of the Virgin (W)

The kneeling figure of a monk on the right is reputed to be a self-portrait of the artist.

 Fra Filippo Lippi died in 1469 at Spoleto, he had been commissioned to paint the apse of the cathedral with scenes from the life of the Virgin a work completed by his son Filippino Lippi. 

Annunciation.

Duomo di Spoleto, Scenes of the Life of the Virgin (w) 

Coronation of the Virgin. 

Death of the Virgin.

1467-1469. Cathedral of Spoleto (w)

Child in a Wood. (s)

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