Filippo Lippi

Fra Filippo Tommaso Lippi ( Fra Lippo Lippi also, * um 1406 in Florence; † to 8 October 1469 Spoleto ) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance. His works are characterized by fine lines and careful perspective design of the backgrounds from (especially landscapes).

Lippi's painting was, as in Masaccio, strongly influenced by the perspective of the architect Brunelleschi and teaching of the plastically - realistic representation of the human figure by the sculptor Donatello. He held an important workshop in Florence, where Sandro Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, his son were trained.

Life

Both Lippi's father, a butcher, and his mother died when he was still a child and he was raised by his aunt. At 14, he was accepted at the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence and remained there until 1432. His first steps in painting he was comfortable there. In the neighboring chapel of the Brancacci he could study the works of Masaccio and so early to know the techniques and expression. Between 1430 and 1432 he carried out some works for the monastery, but were destroyed in 1771 by a fire.

Finally Lippi left the monastery, but was probably not initially released from his vows. In a letter dated 1439 he speaks of himself as the poorest friar of Florence and reported that he bear the responsibility for six marriageable nieces. 1452 he was appointed chaplain to the convent of San Giovannino in Florence, in 1457 rector ( Rettore Commendatario ) of San Quirico in Legania.

His biographer Giorgio Vasari tells of some strange and romantic adventures of Fra Filippo, but today's biographers tend to reject these narratives. Apart from Vasari is nothing about his trip to Ancona and Naples known, nor his time between capture by Barbary pirates and enslavement of his, from which it is alleged to have freed his talent in portraiture.

In June 1456 Filippo settled in Prato, to paint the frescoes in the choir of the local cathedral. Before he started the actual work on it, he went in 1458 to an image for the convent chapel of San Margherita in Prato, where he met Lucrezia Buti know, the beautiful daughter of a Florentine, Francesco Buti. She was either a novice or a young woman in the care of the nuns. He asked that they sit model for the statue of the Madonna or the San Margherita. With it, he then blew; the result of this love was Filippino Lippi, the painter was also.

Fra Filippo's last work were the frescoes in the apse of the cathedral of Spoleto. During this work he died, and the work was completed by Fra Diamante.

Works

• Fresco: Confirmation of the Carmelite Order (1432, Florence)
• Proclamation of the death of Mary (1437-1438, Florence)
• The Coronation of the Virgin (1441-1447, Florence)
• Annunciation (1443-1445, Munich, Alte Pinakothek )
• Tondo: Madonna and Child ( 1452, Florence)
• Frescos: scenes from the life of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist (1452-1457, Prato )
• Adoration of the Child in the Forest ( 1459, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin )
• Madonna with Child and Two Angels ( 1465, Florence)
• Maria with the child ( about 1465, Munich Alte Pinakothek )