Fra Filippo Lippi - one of the great Florentine painters, mentor of the artist Botticelli, has one of the most interesting biographies of the early Renaissance.
Biography
Filippo Lippi was born in 1406 in the family of a butcher, Tommaso di Lippi, in one of the poor neighborhoods of Florence. His mother died a few days after the birth of his son, and two years later his father dies. Filippo’s orphan is taken up by his father’s sister, but at the age of eight, due to poverty, he was given a novice to the Carmelite del Carmine monastery.
At age 15, Filippo Lippi was forced to take a monastic vow. Life in the monastery was not easy for him. Without any interest in science and books, he painted human figures and caricatures on parchment.
After some time, the mentor Filippo noticed his artistic abilities. The young man began to visit the churches of Florence and copy the frescoes located there. Here the talent of a young artist began to manifest, and the monks instructed him to complete work on the paintings of the monastery chapel of Brancacci, which at one time the painter Masaccio did not finish. Filippo did an excellent job of this task, and he began to receive orders for the painting of other churches.
In 1431, the young artist left the monastery and until 1434 nothing was known about his activities. Filippo then heads to Padua. Apparently, there he gets acquainted with the paintings of Dutch and French artists, since, having returned to Florence, his artistic style is changing.
In 1438, his life changed dramatically. Cosimo Medici takes him under his protection, who provided him with orders and money until the end of his life. With the help of such a generous philanthropist, Filippo first receives an appointment as chaplain to the church of San Giovanno, and then he is transferred to the church of San Chirico near Florence. This period of the master’s life is considered the most fruitful. At this time, he creates his most famous works, which expresses the original, incomparable style of the painter. Also at this time, young Sandro Botticelli became a student of Filippo Lippi.
Filippo Lippi passed away while working on a cycle of frescoes in Spoletto. He was 63 years old. His patron, Cosimo Medici, wanted to bury Lippi in his homeland, but the inhabitants of Spoletto persuaded him to leave the remains of the artist in his city.
Creation
During the period when Filippo Lippi lived, the training of students in painting or craft took place in the workshops of artists. But Filippo was formed as an artist on his own, as he was from a poor family and no one could pay for his training. Undoubtedly, such artists as Masacho and Masolino influenced his work. A visit to Padua and acquaintance with the painting technique of other masters served as an impetus for the development of their own unique style of painting. Filippo Lippi's works are distinguished by elaboration of details and the presence of a large number of various small elements.
Filippo liked to paint religious paintings. In his work, scenes of the Annunciation and from the life of the Madonna are often found. Many art historians believe that in the tender face of the Madonna, Filippo Lippi painted his beloved women, and later his wife. The artist was the first to write his creations in a round frame. In the future, this technique called "tondo" will become very popular in Italy. Many works in this format will appear in Sandro Botticelli, who clearly adopted it from his teacher. The artist often inscribed architectural objects in his canvases. They did not always have the right proportions, but this helped to make Filippo's painting diverse, as well as receive orders for sculptural decoration of tombs.
Filippo Lippi is associated with some technical innovations that played an important role in the development of Italian painting of that time. Lippi was the first among the artists of the Renaissance began to write self-portraits in the compositions of his works. His full round face with a slightly ironic expression can be seen on the fresco "Coronation of Mary" (Uffizi Gallery). We see the artist’s self-portrait in this picture twice: the first time he appears to the viewer as an ordinary monk, propping his chin with his hand, and the second - in the image of a bishop in a green robe.
Another innovation is the fact that Lippi was the first to paint a religious scene in the interior space. It was a painting "Madonna and Child, Angels, Saints and Prayers", commissioned by the Carmelites.
The most famous works of the artist are: “The Annunciation” (1450), “Altar of Novitsiato” (1445), “Vision of Blessed Augustine” (circa 1460), “Madonna and Child with Two Angels” (1460-1465).).
