Filippino Lippi
Filippino Lippi (probably 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. He also worked in Rome for a period from 1488, and later in the Milan area and Bologna. He worked in oils, tempera and fresco, mostly painting religious subjects, with a few portraits and secular allegories or scenes from classical mythology.
Also recorded as Filippino Fiorentino · Philippe Lippi fils · Lippi
Filippino Lippi

Filippino Lippi · The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202. · Public domain
- Name
- Filippino Lippi
- Birth Name
- Filippo Lippi
- Born
- probably 1457
- Birthplace
- Prato, Republic of Florence
- Died
- 18 April 1504
- Place of death
- Florence, Republic of Florence
- Known for
- Painting, fresco
- Movement
- Italian Renaissance
- Nationality
- Italy
- Occupation
- painter
- Fields
- Renaissance painting · painting · fresco painting
- Teachers
- Filippo Lippi · Fra Diamante · Sandro Botticelli
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Documentary summary
Filippino Lippi (probably 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. He also worked in Rome for a period from 1488, and later in the Milan area and Bologna. He worked in oils, tempera and fresco, mostly painting religious subjects, with a few portraits and secular allegories or scenes from classical mythology.
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wikidata · Q296265 · wikipedia · Filippino Lippi
In this article
Biography
Biography
Training under Filippo Lippi, Fra Diamante and Sandro Botticelli is recorded. The recorded working language is Italian. The field of work recorded is Renaissance painting, painting and fresco painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Filippo Lippi and Sandro Botticelli are recorded as an influence. Places of work recorded in the authority are Florence. Residence is recorded at Prato. Works named in the authority record are The Disputation with Simon Magus and the Crucifixion of Peter, The Vision of Saint Bernard, Three Angels and Young Tobias, Madonna with Child, St Anthony of Padua, and a Friar, Saint Jerome and Tabernacolo of the Mercatale. Work by Filippino Lippi is recorded in the collections of Städel Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Nationalmuseum and Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Filippino Lippi • Birth Name — Filippo Lippi • Born — probably 1457 • Birthplace — Prato, Republic of Florence • Died — 18 April 1504 • Place of death — Florence, Republic of Florence • Known for — Painting, fresco • Training — Filippo Lippi • Movement — Italian Renaissance • Notable Works — Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard Adoration of the Magi • Illustration — Apparition of The Virgin to St. Bernard (1485–1487) • Illustration — Allegory of Music (c. 1500), tempera on panel, 61 × 51 cm. Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
Biography
Biography
Filippino Lippi was born, probably in 1457, at Prato, Tuscany, the illegitimate son to Lucrezia Buti and the painter Fra Filippo Lippi. The couple had both broken vows of celibacy, and though after Filippino's birth they received a papal dispensation to marry (arranged by Lorenzo di Medici), Vasari says that they never did. Filippino's sister Alessandra was born in 1465. Filippino first trained under his father in his workshop. They moved to Spoleto, where Filippino served as workshop assistant during the construction of Spoleto Cathedral. When his father died in 1469, Filippino was aged twelve and was among the assistants to his father who completed the frescoes with Storie della Vergine ("Life of the Virgin") in the cathedral. Filippino later completed his apprenticeship in the workshop of Botticelli, who had been a pupil of Filippino's father. In the 1472 records of the Painters' guild it is noted that Botticelli had only Filippino Lippi as an assistant, and that he was living in his master's house. The two artists often worked together on the same project. The shared works include the panels belonging to a later dismantled pair of cassoni, the panels being now divided among the Louvre, the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée Condé in Chantilly, and the Galleria Pallavicini in Rome. Works by Botticelli and Filippino from these years include many paintings of the Madonna and Child which are often difficult to distinguish from one another. • Illustration — Mystic Wedding of St Catherine (1501) Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna, Italy Filippino's early solo works greatly resemble those of Botticelli, but perhaps with less sensitivity and subtlety. The first ones (dating from 1475 onward) were attributed to an anonymous "Amico di Sandro" (i.e. "Friend of Botticelli"), a term introduced by Bernard Berenson in 1899, though by 30 years later Berenson's "lists" ascribed most of them to Lippi. Eventually Lippi's style evolved, becoming more personal and effective during the period 1480–1485. Works of this early period include: the Madonnas of Berlin, London, and Washington, D.C., the Journeys of Tobia of the Galleria Sabauda, Turin, the Madonna of the Sea of the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, and the Histories of Ester. Together with Perugino (another pupil of his father), Ghirlandaio, and Botticelli, Filippino Lippi worked on the decoration of Lorenzo de' Medici's villa at Spedaletto. On 31 December 1482, he was commissioned to decorate a wall of the Sala dell'Udienza of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, a work never begun. Soon after, probably in 1483–84, he was called to complete Masaccio's decoration of the Brancacci Chapel in the Santa Maria del Carmine di Firenze, that had been left unfinished when the artist died in 1428. There Filippino painted Stories of Saint Peter, in the following frescoes: Quarrel with Simon Magus in face of Nero, Resurrection of the Son of Teophilus, Saint Peter Jailed, Liberation, and Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Filippino's self-portrait at age twenty-five is at the right hand portion of the central panel, Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St. Peter (see detail at info box). Filippino Lippi's work on the Sala degli Otto di Pratica, in the Palazzo Vecchio, was completed on 20 February 1486. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery. At about this time, Piero di Francesco del Pugliese asked him to paint the altarpiece with the Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard, which is now in the Badia Fiorentina, Florence. This is Filippino Lippi's most popular painting: a composition of unreal items, with its very particular elongated figures, backed by a phantasmagorical scenario of rocks and almost anthropomorphic trunks. The work is dated to 1485–1487. Later, Filippino worked for Tanai de' Nerli in Florence's Santo Spirito church. On 21 April 1487, Filippo Strozzi asked him to decorate the Strozzi family chapel in Santa Maria Novella with Stories of St. John Evangelist and St. Philip. He worked on this commission on and off over a long time. He only completed it in 1503, after Strozzi's death. The windows with musical themes, in the same chapel, also designed by Filippino, were completed between June and July 1503. These paintings have been considered as influenced by the political and religious crisis in Florence at the time: the theme of the fresco, the clash between Christianity and Paganism, was hotly debated during those years and in connection with the friar Girolamo Savonarola. Filippino depicted his characters in a landscape that recreated the ancient world in its finest details, showing the influence of the Grottesco style he had seen during his time in Rome. He created an "animated", mysterious, fantastic, but disquieting style, showing the unreality of nightmares. Thus, Filippino portrayed ruthless executioners with grim faces, who raged against the Saints. In the scene of St. Philip expelling a monster from the temple, the statue of the pagan deity is represented as a living figure challenging the Christian saint. In 1488, now in his early thirties, Lippi went to Rome, where Lorenzo de' Medici had advised Cardinal Oliviero Carafa to entrust him with the decoration of the family chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The frescoes he produced there show a new inspiration, different from his earlier works, but confirm Lippi's continued research on the themes of the classical era. He completed the series by 1493. • Illustration — Adoration of the Magi (1496) tempera grassa on wood, Uffizi, Florence, Italy Lippi returned to Florence some time between 1491 and 1494. Works of this period include: Apparition of Christ to the Virgin (c. 1493, now in Munich), Adoration of the Magi (1496, for the church of San Donato in Scopeto, now in the Uffizi), Sacrifice of Laocoön (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 by the work of Luca Signorelli). In addition Filippino worked away from his home town, at the Certosa di Pavia, a Carthusian monastery or Charterhouse located outside Pavia, and also in Prato, where, in 1503, he completed the Tabernacle of the Christmas Song, now in the City Museum. In 1501 Lippi painted the Mystic Wedding of St. Catherine for the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna. Lippi's final work was the Deposition for the Santissima Annunziata church in Florence, a work which was left unfinished at his death. Filippino Lippi died on 18 April 1504, aged 47. It is a sign of his fame and reputation that on the day of his burial all the workshops of the city closed in his honor.
Major works
Major works
• Madonna with Child, St. Anthony of Padua and a Friar (before 1480) —Tempera on panel, 57 × 41.5 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest • The Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1480) —Tempera on panel, 90.2 × 223 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Tobias and the Angel (c. 1480) —Tempera on panel, 33 × 23 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Three Angels with Young Tobias (1485) —Oil on panel, 100 × 127 cm, Galleria Sabauda, Turin • Portrait of an Old Man (1485) —Detached fresco, 47 × 38 cm, Uffizi, Florence • Self-portrait —Detached fresco on flat tile, 50 × 31 cm, Uffizi, Florence • Portrait of a Youth (c. 1485) —Panel, 51 × 35.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Signoria Altarpiece (Pala degli Otto) (1486) —Tempera on panel, 355 × 255 cm, Uffizi, Florence • Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard (1486) —Oil on panel, 210 × 195 cm, Church of Badia, Florence • Annunciation with St. Thomas and Cardinal Carafa (1488–1493) —Fresco, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome • Madonna with Child and Saints (c. 1488) —Oil on panel, Santo Spirito, Florence • St. Jerome (1490s) —Oil on panel, 136 × 71 cm, Uffizi, Florence • Apparition of Christ to the Virgin (c. 1493) —Oil on panel, 156.1 × 146.7 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich • Adoration of the Magi (1496) —Oil on panel, Uffizi, Florence • Madonna and Child with Saints (1498) —Fresco, 239 × 141 × 71 cm, Museo Civico, Prato • Allegory (c. 1498) —Oil on panel, 29 × 22 cm, Uffizi, Florence • Allegory of Music (Erato) (c. 1500) —Tempera on panel, 61 × 51 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin • Crucifixion, c. 1501 — tempera on panel, 31.2 × 23.4 cm, Museo Civico, Prato • Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (c. 1501–1503) —Panel, Basilica di San Domenico, Bologna • Madonna and Child, St. Stefan and St. John the Baptist (1502–1503) —Tempera on panel, 132 × 118 cm, Museo Civico, Prato • Deposition (1504, finished by Perugino in 1507) —Oil on panel, 333 × 218 cm, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Death of Lucretia (1478–1480) • Illustration — The Coronation of the Virgin (detail) (c. 1480) Tempera on panel, 90.2 × 223 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Illustration — Annunciation with St. John the Baptist and St. Andrew, c. 1485 • Illustration — Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard (detail) (1486) Oil on panel, 210 × 195 cm, Church of Badia, Florence • Illustration — Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard (detail) • Illustration — Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard (detail) • Illustration — Apparition of Christ to the Virgin (c. 1493) —Oil on panel, 156.1 × 146.7 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich • Illustration — Angel (detail), Retábulo da Sala Degli Otto, Florence • Illustration — Madonna with Child and Saints (c. 1488) Oil on wood, Santo Spirito, Florence
Historical novels
Historical novels
• Linda Proud, A Tabernacle for the Sun (Godstow Press, 2005), a literary novel set in Florence during the Pazzi Conspiracy, adheres closely to known facts. Filippino features as the closest friend of the narrator, Tommaso dei Maffei, here and in the following two novels of The Botticelli Trilogy. • Linda Proud, Pallas and the Centaur (Godstow Press, 2004), deals with the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy and Lorenzo de' Medici's strained relations with his wife and with Poliziano. • Linda Proud, The Rebirth of Venus (Godstow Press, 2008), the final volume of The Botticelli Trilogy, covers the 1490s and the death of Lorenzo. • Linda Proud, A Gift for the Magus (Godstow Press, 2012), a novel about Fra Filippo Lippi and Cosimo de' Medici. Features Filippino's birth and childhood.
Life and work
Life and work
Filippino Lippi was born on 1 January 1457 in Prato. Lippi held the nationality of Italy. Lippi studied under Filippo Lippi, Fra Diamante and Sandro Botticelli. Recorded father: Filippo Lippi. Recorded mother: Lucrezia Buti. Recorded child: Roberto di Filippo Lippi. Lippi worked as painter. Lippi worked in Florence. The fields Lippi worked in include portrait. Lippi worked in Italian. Lippi is placed by the collections within Italian Renaissance.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Prato
Residences
Florence.
Death place
School works
Following works are permitted to be cited as Filippino's school works. • the Madonna, Child and St. John —tondo, Keglevich collection, Budapest, • Cenacolo di S. Apollonia —Florence • the Virgin giving her girdle to St. Thomas —Florence • St. Anthony Abbot —Florence
Catalogued output
Works documented in more than one form
8 titles are catalogued under more than one form, which is to say the registers hold them both as a work and as a distinct object, score, recording or edition. Where a title is documented in several forms the evidence behind it is correspondingly wider, and the article treats those forms as separate records of the same work rather than as separate works. Frescoes, Brancacci Chapel, dated 1424 — catalogued as work of art, visual artwork and group of works.
The Disputation with Simon Magus and the Crucifixion of Peter
1481 — catalogued as painting and fresco
The Vision of Saint Bernard
1486 — catalogued as painting and altarpiece
Annunziata Polyptych
1504 — catalogued as polyptych and painting series
Adoration of the Christ Child
1480 — catalogued as tondo and painting
The Madonna and Child with two Angels
1485 — catalogued as tondo and painting
Pala dell'udienza
1500 — catalogued as painting and panel
Tabernacolo of the Mercatale
1498 — catalogued as painting and fresco
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1400–1498
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1400–1498
These are objects catalogued as visual works, each held or recorded by the institution named against it. 67 works carry dates between 1400 and 1498. The 1480s are the densest part of the run, with 29 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself. They belong to a run of 102 titles in all, from 1400 to 2000.
Double portrait of Piero del Pugliese and Filippino Lippi
1486
The run opens with crucifixion of Saint Philip and closes with Tabernacolo of the Mercatale
A selection is set out below and the complete run may be opened beneath it. Crucifixion of Saint Philip
1400
Frescoes, Brancacci Chapel
1424
Raising of the Son of Teophilus and St
Peter Enthroned
1427
The Annunciation
1460
Madonna and Child
1467
Three Scenes from the Story of Esther
1470
Adoration of the Kings
1470
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
1472
Five Sibyls Seated in Niches: the Samian, Cumean, Hellespontic, Phrygian and Tiburtine
1473
Story of Verginia
1475
The complete catalogue · 60
The run opens with crucifixion of Saint Philip and closes with Tabernacolo of the Mercatale
A selection is set out below and the complete run may be opened beneath it. Crucifixion of Saint Philip
1400
Frescoes, Brancacci Chapel
1424
Raising of the Son of Teophilus and St
Peter Enthroned
1427
The Annunciation
1460
Madonna and Child
1467
Three Scenes from the Story of Esther
1470
Adoration of the Kings
1470
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
1472
Five Sibyls Seated in Niches: the Samian, Cumean, Hellespontic, Phrygian and Tiburtine
1473
Story of Verginia
1475
Tobias and the Angel
1475
Life of Esther
1475
The Adoration of the Child
1475
Esther at the Palace Gate
1475
The Triumph of Mordecai
1475
Madonna with Child, St Anthony of Padua, and a Friar
1477
The Penitent Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
1477
Death of Lucretia
1478
Ahasuerus Chooses Esther
1480
Queen Vashti Leaving the Royal Palace
1480
The outcast
1480
The Coronation of the Virgin
1480
The Adoration of the Kings
1480
The Virgin and Child with Saint John
1480
Peter and Paul Disputing Simon Magus
1481
Liberation of Saint Peter
1482
St Paul Visits St Peter in Prison
1482
Adoration of the Child
1483
Pala Magrini
1483
Saints Benedict and Apollonia (left) and Saints Paul and Frediano (right)
1483
Three Angels and Young Tobias
1485
Annunciation with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew
1485
The Wounded Centaur (verso: the Birth of Venus?)
1485
Portrait of a Young men with a red beret
1485
Portrait of an Old Man
1485
Portrait of a Youth
1485
The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Dominic
1485
Double portrait of Piero del Pugliese and Filippino Lippi
1486
Saint Philip chases the dragon from the temple of Mars
1487
Standing Woman with Her Hands Clasped in Prayer
1488
Two Draped Women Standing on Either Side of a Herm
1488
Saint Francis
1488
Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas over the Heretics
1489
Crucifixion
1490
Crucifixion of Christ
1490
Jerome in His Study
1490
Mary with the Child
1490
Madonna with Child and Saints
1493
Apparition of Christ to the Virgin
1493
Saint Jerome
1493
Various Figure Studies
1493
Dancing Putto Holding a Drapery
1493
Bust of an angel
1494
An Angel Adoring
1495
The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret
1495
Head of an elderly man
1495
Adoration of the Magi
1496
Standing Nude Youth
1496
A further 4 recorded entries stand behind this article and are held on the record.
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1500–2000
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1500–2000
17 works carry dates between 1500 and 2000. The run opens with Pietà (The Dead Christ Mourned by Nicodemus and Two Angels) and closes with San Giovanni Evangelista in boiling oil. The 1500s are the densest part of the run, with 13 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself.
Pietà (The Dead Christ Mourned by Nicodemus and Two Angels)
1500
The Nativity
1500
Man with a Stick
1500
An Angel Carrying a Torch
1500
Allegory of Music (Erato)
1500
Two Angels Carrying Torches
1501
Small Crucifix
1501
Saint Sebastian with Madonna and child
1502
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
1503
Madonna and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist, Angels Circling Above
1503
Deposition from the Cross
1504
Coronation of Mary with Saints Jerome, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventura and Louis of Toulouse
1512
Paintings, drawings and prints without a settled date
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints without a settled date
18 further works are catalogued under Lippi's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it. Mary with the Child, flanked by the Angel of the Annunciation and the Young Saint John. Standing Half-dressed Youth Straddling and Holding a Long Staff. Sleeping figure with arm and head resting on a stool. Herm pointing to Priapus in combat with a centaur.
Chapel of Filippo Strozzi
The Nativity with Two Angels
Portrait of a Musician
Mino da Fiesole
Christ in the tomb
Two Women Walking and Conversing
The Youthful St
John the Baptist in Contemplation
Hercules, Nessus and Deianera
Saint John the Baptist in Contemplation. Association and saints
The Virgin and Child
St John the Baptist. Funeral monument for Filippo Lippi
Modern reception
The art critic Paul George Konody wrote of Lippi that "some of his qualities show him to be the most subtle psychologist of his time, the most modern in spirit of all the artists of the Renaissance".
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q296265: Filippino Lippi
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Filippino Lippi”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Authority records
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
19,183 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Fikret OtyamArtist
- Fikri CantürkArtist
- Filiberto PetitiArtist
- Filipp MalyavinArtist
- Filippo AbbiatiArtist
- Filippo BalbiArtist
- Filippo BaldinucciArtist
- Filippo BarattiArtist
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