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Lorenzo Lippi
Italian, 1606 - 1664
Italian painter and poet. He was trained by Matteo Rosselli, with whom he worked for many years in close partnership. His collaboration was sometimes anonymous but is documented from 1622, when they decorated the ceiling of the Sala della Stufa (Florence, Pitti), to 1631–2, when they worked together on lunettes portraying St Francis Adoring the Child and St Catherine in Prison (Florence, S Gaetano). In 1630 Lippi was enrolled in the Accademia del Disegno but appears not to have had his own workshop until after 1634, although he worked independently before then. The earliest paintings attributable to him are, both in facial types and in the soft, rich folds of the drapery, close in style to the work of Rosselli. Examples include canvases of the Apostles James, John and Matthew, and Christ Blessing (all 1628; Vaglia, S Pietro), and the Virgin Handing the Child to St Francis (1629; Florence, S Salvatore di Camaldoli). In the 1630s Lippi painted decorative and theatrical compositions, mainly on literary and biblical themes, which remained indebted to Rosselli, for example Samson and Delilah (1632; Stockholm, Nmus.) and the Virgin in Glory with Saints (1634; Ronta, nr Barberino di Mugello, S Michele). Shortly afterwards he produced works (e.g. the Sacrifice of Isaac and Hagar and the Angel; both San Miniato, Mus. Dioc. A. Sacra), which, in their use of sfumato as a means of heightening the feeling of pathos, are reminiscent of the work of Francesco Furini.
The simpler composition and more concentrated light of Lippi’s Martyrdom of St Andrew (1639; Florence, S Agata) introduced a more marked change of direction. In the 1640s, in such works as the Flight into Egypt (1642; Massa Maríttima, S Agostino), he developed his own strictly purist figurative language, inspired by Santi di Tito and intended to revive the style of such great 16th-century masters as Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolommeo. After a journey to Austria in 1643–4 in the entourage of Claudia de’ Medici (1604–1648), for whom he painted portraits and the classical Christ and the Woman of Samaria , he painted his great Crucifixion (1647; Florence, Mus. S Marco), the most austere and deeply devotional of his religious works. A series of moralizing half-length allegorical figures, among them Pretence (Angers, Mus. B.-A.) and Innocence (Oxford, Ashmolean), dates from the mid-1640s.
In the 1650s and 1660s Lippi painted many altarpieces (e.g. the Madonna of the Rosary, 1652; Foiano della Chiana, nr Arezzo, S Domenico; and St Thomas Giving Alms, 1662; Prato, S Agostino), which are executed in the simplified style he developed in the 1640s. He also painted works intended for private collectors, on Old Testament and literary subjects, such as the Triumph of David (1656; Florence, priv. col., see exh. cat., 1986, Pittura, p. 347) and Erminia among the Shepherds (c. 1658; Pistoia, Rospigliosi Museo Clemente; see exh. cat., 1986, Pittura, p. 345). These always adhere closely to their texts and are characterized by clearly defined shapes and direct and unambiguous gesture and expression.
The extreme clarity and purity of Lippi’s art reflected his desire for a moral and didactic style of painting, which was attuned to his literary and philosophical interests. He frequented Florence’s religious companies and literary academies and was a friend of Salvator Rosa (in Florence, 1640–49), with whom he shared an interest in philosophical and elevating subjects. He also knew Filippo Baldinucci, who was the inspiration for parts of his mock heroic poem, Il malmantile racquistato (1649; published posthumously). Baldinucci recorded Lippi’s life but was an admirer of his poetry rather than of his painting. He could not understand or sympathize with Lippi’s refined simplicity and criticized him for excessive naturalism and lack of invention and richness.
Chiara D’Afflitto. "Lippi, Lorenzo." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T051288 (accessed April 11, 2012).
Person TypeIndividual
Italian, c. 1610 - 1665
