Born Filippo Lippi in Prato (Tuscany), the illegitimate son of the painter
Fra Filippo Lippi and Lucrezia Buti, Filippino first trained under his father.
They moved to Spoleto, where Filippino served as shop adjuvant in the
construction of the Cathedral there. When his father died in 1469, he completed
the frescos with Storie della Vergine (Histories of the Virgin) in the
cathedral. Filippino Lippi completed his apprenticeship in the workshop of
Botticelli, who had been a pupil of Filippino's father. In 1472, Botticelli also
took him as his companion in the Compagnia di San Luca.
His first works greatly resemble those of Botticelli's, but with less
sensitivity and subtlety. The very first ones (dating from 1475 onwards) were
initially attributed to an anonymous "Amico di Sandro" ("Friend of Botticelli").
Eventually Lippi's style evolved into a more personal and effective one in the
years 1480-1485. Works of the early period include: the Madonnas of Berlin,
London and Washington, the Journeys of Tobia of the Galleria Sabauda in Turin,
Italy, the Madonna of the Sea of Galleria dell'Accademia and the Histories of
Ester.
Together with Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Botticelli, Lippi worked on the frescoed
decoration of Lorenzo de Medici's villa at Spedaletto. On December 31, 1482 he
was commissioned to work on a wall of Sala dell'Udienza of Palazzo Vecchio in
Florence (a work never begun). Soon after (probably in 1483-1484) he was called
to complete Masaccio's decoration of Brancacci Chapel in the church of the
Carmine, left unfinished by the artist's death in 1428 . Here he realized the
Stories of Saint Peter on the following frescoes: Quarrel with Simon Magus in
face of Nero, Resurrection of Teophilus' Son, Saint Peter Jailed, Liberation and
Saint Peter's Crucifixion.
The work on the Sala degli Otto di Pratica, in the Palazzo Vecchio, started on
February 20, 1486. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery. In the same years Piero di
Francesco del Pugliese asked him to paint the altarpiece with Apparition of the
Virgin to St. Bernard, now in the Badia Fiorentina, Florence. This is Lippi's
most popular picture: a composition of unreal items, with its very particular
elongated figures, backed by a phantasmagorical scenario of rocks and almost
anthropomorphic trunks. The work can be dated to the 1480–1486 years.
Eventually he worked for Tanai de' Nerli in the Saint Spirit's Church.
On April 21, 1487, Filippo Strozzi asked him to decorate the family chapel in
Santa Maria Novella with the Stories of St. John Evangelist and St. Philip. He
worked on this piece intermittently, only completing it in 1503, after the
customer's death. The windows with musical themes, also designed by Filippino,
were completed between June and July 1503. These paintings can be seen as a
mirror of the political and religious crisis in Florence at the time: the theme
of the fresco, the clash between Christianity and Paganism, was hotly debated in
the Florence of Girolamo Savonarola.
Filippino showed his characters in a landscape which recreated the ancient world
in its finest details, showing the influence of the Grottesco style he had seen
in his journey to Rome. He created in this way an "animated", mysterious,
fantastic but also disquieting style, showing the unreality of something as a
nightmare. In this way, Filippino portrayed ruthless executioners deformed by
grim faces, who raged against the Saints. In the scene with St. Philip expelling
a monster from the temple, the statue of the pagan god is a living figure which
seems to dare the Christian saint.
In 1488, Lippi moved to Rome, where Lorenzo de' Medici had advised Cardinal
Oliviero Carafa to entrust him the decoration of the family chapel in Santa
Maria sopra Minerva. These frescoes show a new kind of inspiration, quite
different from the earlier works, but confirm his continued research on the
themes of the Ancient era. Lippi finished the cycle by 1493.
Lippi's return to Florence is variously assigned to the years going from 1491 to
1494 . Works of this period include: Apparition of Christ to Madonna (1493, now
in Munich), Adoration of the Magi (1496, for the church of San Donato in Scopeto,
now in the Uffizi), Sacrifice of Lacoön (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 in some way to Luca Signorelli's art).
He also worked outside of his mother-country, namely on the Certosa of Pavia and
in Prato, where in 1503 he completed the Tabernacle of the Christmas Song, now
in the City Museum; in 1501 Lippi realized the Mystic Wedding of St. Catherine
for the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna.
Lippi's last work is the Deposition for the Santissima Annunziata church in
Florence, which at his death in April 1504 was unfinished.
He was so renowned that all the workshops of the city closed on the day of his
burial.
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