17 Facts About Filippo Lippi

Filippo Lippi was an early Renaissance master of a painting workshop, who taught many painters.

Filippo Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife.

Filippo Lippi was orphaned when he was two years old and sent to live with his aunt, Mona Lapaccia.

Filippo Lippi was ordained as a priest in approximately 1425 and remained in residence at the priory until 1432.

Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian of the Renaissance, writes in his Lives of the Artists that Filippo Lippi was inspired to become a painter by watching Masaccio at work in the Carmine church.

In 1432, Filippo Lippi quit the monastery, although he was not released from his vows.

Filippo Lippi's escapades threw him into financial difficulties from which he did not hesitate to extricate himself by forgery.

Filippo Lippi's life included many similar tales of lawsuits, complaints, broken promises, and scandal.

In 1441, Filippo Lippi painted the altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin for the nuns of Sant'Ambrogio.

One of these, placed to the right, is a half-length figure originally thought to be a self-portrait of Filippo Lippi, pointed out by the inscription is perfecit opus upon an angel's scroll.

In 1452, Filippo Lippi was appointed chaplain to the nuns at the Monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena in Florence.

Filippo Lippi asked that she might be permitted to sit for the figure of the Madonna.

Filippo Lippi remained there despite efforts by the nuns to reclaim her.

The close of Filippo Lippi's life was spent at Spoleto, where he had been commissioned to paint scenes from the Life of the Virgin for the apse of the cathedral.

Filippo Lippi's principal altarpiece in this city is a Nativity in the refectory of San Domenico: the Christ child on the ground adored by the Virgin and Joseph, between Saints George and Dominic, in a rocky landscape, with the shepherds playing and six angels in the sky.

Filippo Lippi died in 1469 while working on the frescoes of scenes from the Life of the Virgin in the apse of Spoleto Cathedral.

Filippo Lippi was buried on the right side of the transept, with a monument commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici.