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Morto é il disegno or cheFilippo parte.

(Drawing is dead nowthat Filippo is gone.)

—Lost epitaph of Filippino Lippi, San Michele

Visdomini, Florence, 1504

The first major exhibitionof the work of Filippino

Lippi (1457-1504), one of themost important artists of theFifteenth-century ItalianRenaissance, was on displayat New York City’s Metro-politan Museum of Art fromOct. 28, 1997 to Jan. 11, 1998.Entitled “The Drawings ofFilippino Lippi and His Cir-cle,” the exhibit broughttogether rare works on loanfrom museums around theworld, including 117 draw-ings—80 by Filippino—plusothers by Fra Filippo Lippi(Filippino’s father), SandroBotticelli, Piero di Cosimo,Raphael Sanzio, and otherFlorentine masters.

“Filippino Lippi is theonly major artist of this peri-od with enough surviving work for aserious drawings exhibition, with theexception of Leonardo,” writes GeorgeR. Goldner, curator of the exhibition,who adds that, in assembling the exhib-it, “the drawings were chosen as worksof beauty”—something easily attested toby visitors to the exhibit.

Student of Renaissance Masters

Filippino began life in the shadow ofscandal, having been born the son of theFlorentine painter and Carmelite monk,Fra Filippo Lippi, and Lucrezia Buti, anun from the convent of SantaMargherita. (Being born out of wedlockwas no bar to success as an artist, how-ever, as Leonardo’s own illegitimatebirth attests.) Despite Filippino’s color-ful origins, Vasari reports that he led anexemplary life, joining the Confraternity

of Saint Paul, one of the strictest broth-erhoods in Florence, and, later, the Con-fraternity of Saint Job.1

Filippino first apprenticed in hisfather’s studio, where he learned his art,assisting Filippo with such notable pro-jects as the murals in the choir of SpoletoCathedral; later, he became an assistantto the painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), who was himself a student of FraLippi. And, while these influences onFilippino were important, especially inhis early works, he would later learn a

great deal from Leonardo daVinci (1452-1519), especiallyin the techniques of sfumatoand chiaroscuro.2

Motion of the Mind

The particular insightgained by studying an artist’sdrawings, is that they revealthe creative process by whichhe works his ideas out, as heturns them into a finishedwork of art. Hence, the“motion of the mind” of theartist becomes visible initself. This is especially truewhen both the drawing, andthe finished work of art, canbe viewed side by side.There are several suchinstances in the Lippi exhib-it, including the cartoon(drawing) “Male Saint Hold-ing the Body of the DeadChrist with Angels BearingInstruments of the Passion,”both in pen and brown inkwith brown wash, and a fin-ished painting of the samesubject, on panel.

Looking at the drawing,we see that it is quite elaborated, welldeveloped, and, therefore, closely relatedto the finished work. The painting is apredella panel, usually one of severalsmall works, located at the bottom of alarge altarpiece (itself usually composedof several panels). Artists of this periodoften had much greater freedom in both

Making Visible the ‘Motion of the Mind’EXH IB I TS

“Male Saint Holding the Body of the Dead Christ with Angels BearingInstruments of the Passion,” drawing (top) and painting, c. after 1500.

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1. Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), Florentinepainter and architect, best known for hisbiographies of the artists of the Renais-sance, The Lives of the Most Excellent Ital-ian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors, firstpublished in 1550, now widely available inEnglish as The Lives of the Artists.

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2. Sfumato comes from the Italian word, “tovanish”; it was invented by Leonardo todepict the changes in atmospheric per-spective, including transitions betweencolors, and between light and shade; in hisnotes on painting, Leonardo says that lightand shade should blend “without lines orborders, in the manner of smoke.”Chiaroscuro, literally, light-dark; the tech-nique of using contrasts between light andshade, and the subtleties of shadow, tomodel three-dimensional forms in space;hence, a key element in perspective.

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Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 1998

© 1998 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited.

the selection of subjects, and theexecution, of the predella panels,than they had in the main altar-piece, which was often strictlyassigned by the patron who com-missioned the work. So, it is oftenthese smaller panels that tell usmore about the artist’s ownthinking, than the larger parts ofthe main altarpiece.

Although the drawing andpainting are quite similar, thereare some notable changes in thepainting, through which the artistsought to focus our thoughts onthe content of the Passion story,as he developed the finishedwork. In the drawing, the repre-sentation of Christ has more thequality of an anatomical study,whereas, in the final painting, weare made to focus on the peacefulexpression of the face, and thelimpness of the body, which isemphasized by the heaviness ofthe arms, which have becomelonger and more substantial. This “soft”quality is underscored by the sinewymotion of the fabric which wrapsaround Christ.

Subtle changes have also been madein the composition. The opening of thecave, now directly behind the figure ofChrist, illustrates the use of chiaroscuroto achieve a dramatic effect. (Note, also,the confident manner in which Filip-pino uses broad brushstrokes to suggestthe rough stones of the cave, whose tex-ture is contrasted to that of the angels’feathery wings, which are nonethelessrendered using the same economy oftechnique.)

Another small change in the struc-ture of the composition—drawing theangels in closer to the central triangle,formed by Christ and the Saint, andenfolding them within the same shadowthat surrounds the dead Christ—rein-forces the pyramidal shape, whose trian-gular stability suggests an unchangingEternity. And, the changed expressionon the face of the angel to the left of thepanel—who now gazes directly at theface of Christ, whereas in the originaldrawing, the angel’s gaze is moreambiguous—helps to direct our eyes toChrist’s countenance also.

The Brancacci Chapel

Perhaps Filippino’s most significantwork, and certainly that for which he isbest known, was the completion of thefresco cycle depicting the life of St.Peter, in the Brancacci Chapel in theChurch of Santa Maria del Carmine inFlorence, which had been left unfin-ished some fifty years earlier by thegreat Masaccio, and his assistant,Masolino. There is little doubt that Fil-ippino was strongly influenced byMasaccio, and it was probably from theearlier master that Filippino learned theart of naturalistic portraiture.3

One drawing in the Metropolitanexhibit which demonstrates this in avery powerful way is the Head of anElderly Man Turned to the Right withDowncast Eyes. Clearly a portrait, it isgenerally believed to be that of Piero diFrancesco del Pugliese (1428-1498). Theexhibit catalogue suggests that he mayhave been the model for the dignified

figure standing third from theleft, in the “Raising of Theo-philus’s Son,” who gestures to hiscompanions, toward the dramaticscene before them.

Del Pugliese may also be themodel for St. Peter, himself, ashe looks out, rather gravely,from the bars of his cell, in theprevious fresco in the cycle. Thefigure looks older, and moresober, than the St. Peter ofMasaccio’s earlier frescoes, as helistens intently to St. Paul, whogestures with his right hand,telling Peter of a discussion hehas just had with Theophilus,

the prefect of Antioch. Paul had goneto Theophilus, who had imprisonedPeter, and told him that Peter had thepower to resurrect the dead. Theo-philus responded that he would imme-diately release Peter, if he were able toresurrect his son, who had died four-teen years before.

If we compare the drawing of theelderly man, to that of the Brancacci St.Peter, we might see why Filippo chosethe man in the drawing for his model ofthe saint, even though he had to alter hisappearance somewhat. Try to imaginewhat the pensive man with the down-cast eyes might look like, if he were tolift his head and raise his eyes. This isnot the haughty, sometimes angry Peterwe see in the earlier frescoes of theChapel series.

In the next fresco scene, we see St.Peter after his release from prison, whenhe was taken immediately to the tombof the son of Theophilus, and performedthe miracle of resurrection. As a resultof this, the entire population of Antiochwere converted to Christianity. (Thesame fresco cycle gives us a self-portraitof Filippino, who places himself at thefar right of the crowd in the “Martyr-dom of St. Peter.”)

Left: “Head of an Elderly ManTurned to the Right with DowncastEyes,” drawing, 1480-83. Right:Masaccio and Filippino Lippi,“Raising of Theophilus’s Son andSt. Peter Enthroned,” fresco,Brancacci Chapel. Right, below:fresco detail.

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3. Masaccio (1401-28) is generally creditedwith painting the first significant work ofart using the new science of perspective,his extraordinary Trinity, in the church ofSanta Maria Novella in Florence.

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Fire from the Gods

The subject of Prometheus is one ofgreat importance to the spirit of Renais-sance humanism, because it wasPrometheus who challenged the arbi-trary, irrational power of the Olympiangods, in order to bring science, repre-sented metaphorically by fire, toimprove the condition of mankind. Forthis, Prometheus was condemned toeternal torment by Zeus.

In “Prometheus Stealing the CelestialFire” [SEE inside front cover, this issue],however, Filippino chooses to depictPrometheus at his moment of triumph,as he steals the fire from the false gods ofMt. Olympus for the benefit of humani-ty—thus, the Christian idea of imagoDei, man in the image of the One God,is presented in the garb of Classicalmythology.

This subject may have had a specialmeaning for Filippo, since the period ofits execution (c.1495-1500) coincidedwith the rule of Florence by the mad

Dominican monk, GirolamoSavonarola, who became thepolitical and spiritual ruler ofFlorence after the Medici wereexpelled in 1494. Savonarola,the “Pat Robertson” of his day,imposed a fundamentalistregime which rejected theRenaissance concept of Christ-ian humanism, by denouncingit as “pagan”—a slander of theGreek Classicism whoserevival was the very heart and

soul of the Florentine Renaissance.4

The mission of the artists of the Renais-sance like Filippino Lippi, was precise-ly to revive thegreatest ideas,and the mostbeautiful cul-ture, of theancient Greeks:Homer, Plato,Aeschylus, andothers; to cele-brate, and tonurture the cre-ativity of thehuman mind.The horrors ofthe Fourteenth-century BlackDeath, the terri-ble New DarkAge which haddescended uponEurope, wasstill a powerfulmemory. Thus,

the image of Prometheus—whose name,“Forethought,” represents man’s God-like act of creative discovery—was theperfect metaphor for the rekindling ofthe human spirit accomplished by thegreat artists and scientists of the GoldenRenaissance.

—Bonnie James

Filippino Lippi, “St. Paul Visits St. Peter in Prison” (detail), fresco,Brancacci Chapel.

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4. Savonarola (1452-98) supported the 1494invasion of Italy by Charles VIII ofFrance. When Pope Alexander VI (whomSavonarola had called the Antichrist) hadhim defrocked, Savonarola continuedpreaching, and was tried and executed as afalse prophet.

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