monastic life. He indulged in misdemeanors ranging from forgery
and embezzlement to the abduction of a pretty nun, Lucretia, who
became his mistress and the mother of his son, the painter Filippino
Lippi (1457–1504). Only the intervention of the Medici on his behalf
at the papal court saved Fra Filippo from severe punishment and to-
tal disgrace. An orphan, Fra Filippo spent his youth in a monastery
adjacent to the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. When he was still
in his teens, he must have met Masaccio there and witnessed the dec-
oration of the Brancacci Chapel. Fra Filippo’s early work survives
only in fragments, but these show that he tried to work with Masac-
cio’s massive forms. Later, probably under the influence of Ghiberti’s
and Donatello’s relief sculptures, he developed a linear style that em-
phasized the contours of his figures and permitted him to suggest
movement through flying and swirling draperies.
A painting from Fra Filippo’s later years,Madonna and Child
with Angels (FIG. 21-23), shows his skill in employing a wonder-
fully fluid line, which unifies the composition and contributes to the
precise and smooth delineation of forms. Fra Filippo interpreted his
subject in a surprisingly worldly manner. The Madonna, a beautiful
young mother, is not at all spiritual or fragile, and neither is the
Christ Child, whom two angels hold up. One of the angels turns with
the mischievous, puckish grin of a boy refusing to behave for the pi-
ous occasion. Significantly, all figures reflect the use of live models
(perhaps even Lucretia for the Madonna). Fra Filippo plainly rel-
ished the charm of youth and beauty as he found it in this world. He
Florence 55721-22Andrea del Castagno,Last Supper,the refectory, convent of Sant’Apollonia, Florence, Italy, 1447. Fresco, 15 5 32 .
Judas sits isolated in this Last Supperfresco based on the Gospel of Saint John. The figures are small compared to the setting, reflecting Castagno’s
preoccupation with the new science of perspective.
21-23Fra Filippo Lippi,Madonna and Child with Angels,ca. 1455.
Tempera on wood, 2 111 – 2 2 1 . Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
Fra Filippo, a monk guilty of many misdemeanors, represented the
Virgin and Christ Child in a distinctly worldly manner, carrying the
humanization of the holy family further than ever before.
1 ft.1 ft.