Filippo Lippi, (1406–1469)
The Adoration in the Forest, c. 1459
Oil on poplar wood
Height: 129.5 cm (50.9 in); Width: 118.5 cm (46.6 in)
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Adoration in the Forest is a painting completed before 1459 by the Carmelite friar, Filippo Lippi, of the Virgin Mary and the newly born Christ Child lying on the ground, in the unusual setting of a steep, dark, wooded wilderness. There are no shepherds, kings, ox, ass – there is no Joseph. "Lippi removes a whole range of narrative details which would have been present in a standard Nativity - he creates a whole set of mysteries, and then preserves them." It was painted for one of the wealthiest men in Renaissance Florence, the banker Cosimo de Medici. In later times it had a turbulent history. Hitler ordered it to be hidden in WW2 and it became part of the story of a mutiny in the U.S. Army - 'the only known case in the whole Second World War of American officers refusing an order.' It is now once again in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. More on Adoration in the Forest
Fra' Filippo Lippi, O.Carm. (c. 1406 – 8 October
1469), also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the
Quattrocento (15th century). He was brought up as an unwanted child in the
Carmelite friary of the Carmine, where he took his vows in 1421. Unlike the
Dominican Fra Angelico, however, Lippi was a reluctant friar and had a scandalous
love affair with a nun. The couple was released from their vows and allowed to
marry, but Lippi still signed himself "Frater Philippus". His
biography is one of the most colourful in Vasari's Lives and has given rise to
the picture of a wordly Renaissance artist, rebelling against the discipline of
the Church.
From about
1440, however, his style changed direction, becoming more linear and
preoccupied with decorative motifs. Lippi is associated with the form of tondi,
a format he was among the first to use. Another formal innovation with which
Lippi is closely associated is the "sacra conversazione" - his
Barbadori Altarpiece is sometimes claimed as the earliest example of the type.
Filippo
Lippi was not dedicated to the study of nature firsthand; instead, he depended
largely upon painted and sculptured prototypes, and his figures are often
inorganic and unanatomical,
Lippi was highly regarded in his day and his influence is
seen in the work of numerous artists, most notably Botticelli, who was probably
his pupil. Four centuries later he was one of the major sources for the second
wave of Pre-Raphaelitism. More Fra'
Filippo Lippi, O.Carm
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