The Madonna and Child by Filippo Lippi
Today we are talking about a particular work, a painting attributed in 1930 to one of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance. Fra Filippo Lippi, a fifteenth-century Florentine painter and frescoist, was, with Beato Angelico and Domenico Veneziano, the main painter active in Florence, part of the generation following that of Masaccio. On 8 June 1421, Philip took his vows, keeping the same baptismal name. In 1424 he assisted in the decoration, by Masolino da Panicale and Masaccio, of the Brancacci chapel, which played a fundamental role in his artistic vocation. Other models on which the boy trained were the sculptural innovations of Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Nanni di Banco and Brunelleschi. Perhaps in 1432 he left the convent of Florence for Padua. Various sources mention a series of works for Padua, including, in collaboration with Ansuino da Forlì, the frescoes of the Podestà chapel, but all of his activity from this period has been lost. In this period Lippi came into contact with Flemish painting and Venetian colour. There is also an episode recounted by Vasari from these years:
And finding themselves in the March of Ancona, one day traveling with some of their friends in a small boat on the sea, they were all taken together by the Moors, who flowed through those places, and taken to Barbary, each of them being led to the chain into servitude and held as a slave, where he remained with great discomfort for eighteen months. But it happened one day that since he was very familiar with his master, he had the opportunity and whim to paint it; whereupon he took a spent coal from the fire and with it he portrayed him in one piece with his Moorish clothes on a white wall. This was told to the master by the other slaves, because to everyone it seemed like a miracle, since drawing or painting were not used in those parts, and this was the reason for giving him a reward and freeing him from the chain where he had been held for so long.
After leaving Padua he returned to Florence where he opened his own workshop in 1437. In 1438 he was mentioned in a letter from Domenico Veneziano to Piero de' Medici in which Filippo Lippi was equated with Beato Angelico as the best artist active in the city. From 1439 it is probable that Filippo no longer lived in the convent but had a house of his own and, again in that year, Lippi wrote to Piero de' Medici frantically trying to exchange one of his still unfinished paintings for food and clothes (the painting is probably the penitent St. Jerome in the Altenburg museum).
From 1452 to 1465 he worked in Prato, under the protection of the Medici, creating the frescoes in the Maggiore chapel of Santo Stefano. In this period he painted the most important work of his career: the Madonna with child and angels known by all as "Lippina". The unusual dimensions have led to the hypothesis that it was a celebration for a private and personal occasion of the artist, such as the birth of his son Filippino (1457). An eighteenth-century inscription on the back of the panel testifies to the presence of the painting, at that time, in the villa of Poggio Imperiale, owned by the Medici. On 13 May 1796 it was recorded as entering the Galleria Granducali, the original nucleus of the Uffizi.
In his last years he worked in Spoleto creating frescoes with the Stories of the Virgin for the tribune of the Cathedral. Philip died between 8 and 10 October 1469 and was buried in the Cathedral of Spoleto. His son Filippino, already embarking on an artistic career, designed the marble tomb with bust.
We are pleased to present to you the work Madonna col Bambino by Filippo Lippi, which recently became part of the catalog of limited editions of the Bottega Tifernate. Very elegant image, icon of Renaissance art and references to the Gothic style: around the middle of the 1400s, on a panel of approximately 80 x 50 cm, and for a client still unknown today, Filippo Lippi drew another classic of his painting time with clear references to medieval iconography: the circular and flat halos and the large golden cloth spread behind the two protagonists are symbolic references to the gold backgrounds typical of medieval Madonnas and Child. To this day, the emotional impact triggered by the sight of such a harmonious work is still alive. The delicacy, the sweetness, the melancholy, the affection of this Madonna and this Child are a source of enchantment.
A unique work, limited edition: to allow you to possess such timeless beauty, made in only 499 examples throughout the world, the Bottega Tifernate has decided to recreate it with the utmost care and the highest fidelity available, in oil pictography on wood, in the 40× cm format 30, 55×45 cm external frame. An elegant work, with a solid wood frame entirely gilded with gold leaf gouache, arouses an emotional pathos in those who look at it that does not leave indifferent.
The work is accompanied by a folder with the Certificate of Authenticity and an explanation of the Work. The Certificate is filled in with the owner's data which, together with the unique numbering, helps to identify the uniqueness of the creation.