Fra Filippo Lippi: A Painter of Genius

Filippo Lippi - Adoration of the Child with Saints - c. 1463 - Tempera on wood, 140 x 130 cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (click photo for larger image)Legend and tradition surround the life of Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi (c. 1406-1469). He was born into a very large and poor family in Florence. After the death of both his father and mother, the young Filippo was raised by an aunt for some years; later she placed him with his brother in the convent of Carmelite monks at Santa Maria del Carmine, in Florence. 

At that time, the Brancacci chapel of the monastery was being decorated with frescoes by Masaccio, the most explicit phenomenon of the Renaissance. These frescoes, which were to be among the most glorious and influential paintings of the Renaissance, became known as “the school of the world”. Artists traveled from all over to see them. They were Lippi’s first important contact with art, along with the frescoes of Fra Angelico (a rare and perfect talent” (Vasari). 

In 1432 Lippi left the monastery, after having painted some frescoes in the church and in the cloister. He traveled widely, returning to Florence in 1437. Under the protection of the powerful Medici family, he was commissioned to execute several works for convents and churches.

Despite the undoubted influences of his older contemporaries, Lippi developed a distinctive clarity of expression. He was constantly seeking the techniques to realize his artistic vision and his own new ideas made him one of the most appreciated artists of his time. 20th century critic Bernard Berenson maintained that Lippi’s true place as an artist was among the “painters of genius”. 

From the mid-1450s through the mid-1460s, Lippi evolved a new presentation of the Virgin and Child that became popular in the second half of the Quattrocento in Florence. Fra Filippo transformed the subject into a distinct devotional image set within an elaborated forested landscape with a rich imagery of sylvan flora, geological features, and atmosphere, which functioned as visual metaphors for the Incarnation, penitence, and eremitical religious devotion.