Filippo Lippi
Born in
1406, Fra Filippo Lippi was an Italian painter during the Quattrocento, during
the Italian renaissance. Orphaned as a
young child, he was taken care of by his aunt for some years until he joined
the Carmelite Friars, in his teenage years.
Lippi did not do much studying, but he liked to draw, so eventually his
prior allowed him to study painting.
This was a good choice on his part, because Filippo went on in life to create
many beautiful paintings. Filippo
eventually met a woman that he asked to model for his painting of the Madonna,
which led to a physical relationship.
This relationship resulted in a child whom he named Filippino. His son too later on became a famous painter.
Lippi
had many works that are beautiful, including his Madonna with Child, where it
is as though he painted the angel to look like his son. More focus goes to the
angel rather than the baby, Jesus. This is
a beautiful tempera on panel, where the Madonna is recognized as Lucrezia Buti,
the mother of his own child. Another
Painting of Lippi’s that I found online, and found to be very interesting is
his fresco of the Feast of Herod. This
fresco shows the scene of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, where Salmone is presenting the head
of St John the Baptist to Herod, and on the other side is entertaining her
guests with a dance.
The Feast of Herod: Salmone's Dance
1460-1464
Filippo Lippi
Wikimedia Commons
Sandro Botticelli
Sandro
Botticelli was born in 1445, and Vasari says him to have never been “satisfied
in school with reading, writing, and arithmetic.” This boy had a passion for more than the type
of thing that teachers taught; he was interested in the arts. His father placed him to work with a
goldsmith and friend. Sandro “took a
fancy to painting” and so his father took him to the Carmelita Fra Filippino Lippi,
who became the teacher of the great painter Botticelli. This talented student was able to imitate his
mentor so well that Lippi really took a liking to him and taught him through
and through on what he knew. Sandro had
this talent, where he took painting, and instead of a hobby, he definitely made
it a career and hard work. The paths
that he chose with his paintings were new, and daring in the eyes of some. His genius took him to a whole different
level, using some of the ideas of the Greeks that the human body was beautiful
and should be praised. With this, he
also painted scenes of characters from the pagan religions of more than one
god. Beyond these daring scenes,
Botticelli paid close attention to the detail of his characters. Vasari states that the details “reveal the
artist’s mastery of his craft.” This is
a very agreeable statement, because Botticelli was sort of a turning point, and
definitely a master when it comes to painting.
Primavera
Sandro Botticelli 1482
Wiki Commons
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