Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Filippo Lippi

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE PAINTER, FILIPPO^[1] LIPPI.

[born 1460. — died 1505.]

There lived at the same time^[2] in Florence a painter of very fine genius and admirable powers of invention. Filippo namely, son of Fra Filippo del Carmine, who, following the steps of his deceased father in the art of painting, was brought up and instructed, being still a youth at his father’s death, by Sandro Botticello, although the father on perceiving his death approaching, had given him in charge to Fra Diamante, his most intimate friend, nay, almost brother, Filippo was endowed with much originality; he displayed the mPst copious invention in his paintings, and the ornaments he added were so new, so fanciful, and so richly varied, that he must be considered the first who taught the moderns the new method of giving variety to the habiliments, and who first embellished his figures by adorning them with vestments after the antique.^[3] Filippo was also the first who employed the grotesque masks, executed in the manner of the ancients, and which he used as decorations in friezes or frame-works, in terretta, and coloured, displaying more correct drawing and a more finished grace than any of the masters who preceded him had done. It was indeed a wonderful thing to see the extraordinary fancies exhibited in painting by this artist; but what is more, Filippo never executed any work whatever wherein he did not avail himself of Roman antiquities, which he studied with unwearied diligence. Helmets, for example, banners, trophies, vases, buskins, ornaments of the Temples, head-dresses of various kinds, draperies of different sorts, mantles, armour, the toga, swords, scimitars, and other matters of similar kind, so varied and beautiful, that those who follow are under great and perpetual obligation to Filippo for the rich embellishment which he has thus added to this department of art.^[4]

While yet in his first youth, this master completed the Chapel of the Brancacci, in the church of the Carmine, at Florence, which had been commenced by Masolino, and continued but not entirely finished by Masaccio,^[5] who was also interrupted in his labours by death. It was thus from the hand of Filippo that the work received its ultimate perfection, that master completing what remained to be accomplished of an unfinished picture, representing SS. Pietro and Paolo, who restore the nephew of the emperor from the dead. In the figure of the undraped youth, Filippo portrayed the features of the painter Francesco Granacci, then very young; he also depicted that of the Cavalier, Messer Tommaso Soderini, in this work, with those of Piero Guicciardini, father of Messer Francesco, who has written the Storie; of Piero del Pugliese, of the poet Luigi Pucci, of Antonio Pollaiuolo, and finally of himself, as a youth, which he then was; the last-mentioned portrait he never painted again in all the rest of his life, for which cause it has not been possible to procure a likeness of him at a more advanced age.^[6] In the story following this, Filippo painted the portrait of his master, Sandro Botticello, with many other friends and distinguished men; among these was the broker, Baggio, a man of singular talent and very witty, the same who executed the whole Inferno of Dante, in relief, on a shell, with all the “circles” and divisions of its dark caverns, and, finally, its lowest deep; all the figures, and every other minutia, are measured in their exact proportions, and all as they had been most ingeniously imagined and described by that great poet, which was at the time considered an admirable performance. Filippo afterwards painted a picture in tempera for the chapel of Francesco del Pugliese at Campora, a place belonging to the monks of the abbey, outside the gate of Florence. The subject of this work is San Bernardo, who is in a wood writing, and to whom our Lady appears, surrounded by Angels; it has been much admired for the various accessories introduced by the painter; as, for example, the rocks, trees, and shrubs, the books, and similar things; there is besides the portrait of the above-named Francesco, so truly natural, that it wants nothing but the power of speech to be alive. This picture was removed from its place during the siege, and was deposited for safety in the abbey of Florence.^[7] In the church of San Spirito in the same city, Filippino painted a picture for Tanai de’ Nerli,^[8] the subject is the Virgin, with San Martino, San Niccolo, and Santa Caterina; he executed another in the church of San Brancazio (Pancrazio), for the chapel of the Rucellai family,^[9] with a Crucifix, and two figures on a gold ground for the church of San Raffaello.^[10] In the church of San Francesco, situate without the gate of San Miniato, there is a picture by Filippino in front of the Sacristy; it represents the Almighty Father with children around him;^[11] and at the Palco, a house of the barefooted monks outside the city of Prato,^[12] there is also a picture by this master. In the same place there is a small painting by Filippo, which has been greatly extolled; it is in the audience-chamber of the prior, and represents Our Lady, with San Stefano and San Giovanni Batista.^[13] This master likewise painted a Tabernacle in fresco at the corner of the Mercatale (also in Prato), opposite to the convent of Santa Margherita, and near some houses belonging to the nuns. In this work there is an exceedingly beautiful figure of the Virgin, in the midst of a choir of seraphim, the whole group is surrounded by a brilliant light; and among other peculiarities of this picture may be remarked the art and judgment displayed in the Dragon, which is beneath the feet of Santa Margareta, a monster of aspect so horribly strange and loathsome, that one sees clearly the abode of venom, fire, and death in that frightful figure.^[14] The whole of the work is, moreover, remarkable for the freshness and animation of the colouring, qualities for which it merits the highest praise.^[15]

Filippino also executed paintings in Lucca; among these is a picture for one of the chapels in the church of San Ponziano, belonging to the monks of Monte 01iveto.^[16] In the centre of this chapel there is also a very beautiful relief by the hand of that most excellent sculptor, Andrea Sansovino; it is within a recess, and exhibits the figure of Sant’ Antonio.

Being invited to Hungary by King Matthias, Filippo declined to go thither, but painted two very beautiful pictures in Florence for that monarch, which were sent to him, and in one of which was the portrait of Matthias, as he appears on the medals. Filippo likewise sent various works to Genoa,^[17] and for the church of San Domenico, in Bologna, he painted a picture of San Sebastiano, which is worthy of the utmost praise; it is on the left of the chapel of the high altar.^[18] For Tanai de’ Nerli, Filippo painted a second picture in the church of San Salvadore, near Florence, and for his friend Piero del Pugliese he executed a story in small figures, finished with so much art and care, that on being requested by another citizen to paint a similar one for him, the master refused to attempt it, declaring that it was impossible for him to produce such another.^[19]

After completing these works, Filippo undertook an important one in Borne for the Neapolitan Cardinal, Olivieri Caraffa, being entreated thereto by Lorenzo de’ Medici the elder, who was a friend of the cardinal’s. On his way to Borne for this purpose, Filippo passed through Spoleto at the request of the same Lorenzo, to make arrangements for the construction of a marble tomb for his father. Fra Filippo, which Lorenzo had determined to erect at his own cost, since he could not obtain from the people of Spoleto the remains of Fra Filippo, to deposit them in Florence as he had desired. Filippino prepared a design accordingly in a very good manner; and, after that design, Lorenzo caused the monument to be richly and handsomely constructed, as we have already related.^[20] Arrived in Rome, Filippo painted a Chapel for the above-named Cardinal Caraffa, in the church of the Minerva; he there depicted events from the Life of St. Thomas Aquinas, with certain poetical compositions, all of which were ingeniously invented by himself, to whom Nature was at ail times propitious in such matters.^[21] Here, then, we find Faith, by whom Infidelity, with all heretics and sceptics, has been made prisoner. Despair is, in like manner, seen to be vanquished by Hope, and other Virtues also subjugate the Vices which are their opposite. In another compartment St. Thomas is seated in the Professor’s chair, defending the Church against a School of heretics, and beneath his feet lie conquered Sabellius, Arian, Averroes, and others; the draperies of all these figures are exceedingly graceful and appropriate. In our book of drawings we have the whole of the story above described, by Filippo himself, with several others by the same hand, all so ably executed that they could not be improved. There is besides in this chapel the delineation of that event in the life of St. Thomas, when the saint being in prayer, was addressed by the crucifix, which said to him, —Bene scripsisti di me Thoma. A companion of St. Thomas, hearing the Crucifix thus speaking, stands utterly confounded and almost beside himself. On the altar-piece is the Virgin receiving the Annunciation from the Angel Gabriel,^[22] and on the principal wall is the Assumption of our Lady, with the twelve Apostles round her tomb. The whole work was and is considered extremely fine, and for a painting in fresco is admirably executed. The above-named Olivieri Caraifa, Cardinal and Bishop of Ostia, is portrayed in it from the life, and that prelate was deposited in the chapel on his death, in the year 1511,^[23] but was afterwards taken to Naples, and interred in the Episcopal chapel.

Having returned to Florence, Filippo undertook to paint, at his leisure, the chapel belonging to Filippo Strozzi the elder, in the church of Santa Maria Novella, but having completed the ceiling he was obliged to return to Rome; here, for the same cardinal Caraffa, he constructed a Tomb with ornaments of stucco, as also certain figures in the recess of a small chapel beside that above described, in the church of the Minerva, with other figures, some of which were, in part, executed by Filippo’s disciple, RatFaellino del Garbo.^[24] The chapel ofThe tomb was estimated by Maestro Lanzilago, of Padua, and by the Roman, Antonio called Antoniasso, two of the best painters then in Rome, at two thousand gold ducats, exclusive of the cost of ultra-marine and the expenses of the master’s assistants. When Filippo, therefore, had received this sum he returned to Florence, where he completed the before-mentioned chapel of the Strozzi, with so much judgment and such admirable design, that the work awakens astonishment in all who behold it, and not for those qualities only, but also for the novelty and variety of the many fanciful objects depicted in it; among these may be enumerated men in armour, temples, vases, helmets, with their crests, and other arms, trophies, banners, spears, draperies of various kinds, buskins, ornaments for the head, sacerdotal vestments, and other things, all painted in so admirable a manner, that they merit the highest commendation.^[25] Among the events depicted in this work, is the Resurrection of Drusiana by St. John the evangelist, and the amazement experienced by the surrounding people, at the sight of a man who restores life to the dead by a simple sign of the cross, is expressed with the utmost force and truth; this is more particularly manifest in the face of a priest or philosopher, for he may he either, who stands near, in the very extremity of astonishment: he is dressed after the antique, and bears a vase in his hands. In the same story, moreover, and among the numerous figures of women, variously apparelled, is a boy, who, terrified by the attack of a little red and white spaniel, which has seized him by his tunic, turns round to the mother, and, hiding himself among the folds of her garments, seems as entirely possessed by his fear of being bitten by the dog, as the woman is with her amazement, and a sort of dread and horror, as she witnesses the resurrection of Drusiana.^[26] Near this, and where San Giovanni is seen boiled in oil, the expression of rage in the countenance of the judge, who commands that the fire shall be increased, is rendered with extraordinary power; the reflection of the flames on the face of him who blows the fire is also fine, and all the figures are painted in varied and beautiful attitudes. On the opposite side is represented San Filippo in the Temple of Mars, causing to come forth from beneath the altar the Serpent, which has killed the son of the king by the foetid odours emitted from it. The master here painted, on one of the steps of the altar, a cleft, through which the serpent crawls from beneath it, and the fracture thus depicted is so natural, that one evening a scholar of Filippo, desiring to hide something, I know not what, that it might not be seen by some one who was knocking at the door, ran in haste to this hole to conceal what he held within it, but was foiled of his purpose. Filippo displayed equal art in the Serpent itself, insomuch that the venom, the foetid breath, and the fire, seem rather to be real than merely painted. The invention of the picture, in which the saint is crucified, has also been much commended; the artist would seem to have figured to himself that San Filippo had been fastened to the cross while it lay extended on the earth, and to have been then raised and dragged aloft by means of ropes, cords, and stakes; these ropes being carried around the fragments of old buildings, as pillars, basements, and the like, and then drawn by numerous assistants. The weight of the cross and of the undraped saint extended upon it, is supported on the other side bj two men, one of whom upholds the end of the cross by means of a ladder which he has placed beneath it; the other supports the part he holds with the help of a stake, while two more, moving the foot of the cross with a lever, are gradually bringing it to the hole wherein it is to be placed upright. Nor would it be possible to execute all this better than it is here done (whether we consider the invention or design), whatever art or industry might be applied to the work. There are, besides, numerous accessories of different kinds painted in chiaro-scuro to resemble marble, all exhibiting the richest variety and the most admirable design.^[27]

In San Donato, near Florence, called the Scopeto, Filippo painted an Adoration of the Magi for the Scopetine friars. This picture he executed with great care, and in the figure of an Astrologer, holding a quadrant in his hand, he pourtrayed the likeness of Pier Francesco de’ Medici, the elder, son of Lorenzo di Bicci, with that of Giovanni, father of the Signor Giovanni de’ Medici; that of another Pier Francesco, brother of the above-named Signor Giovanni, and those of many other distinguished personages.^[28] In this work there are Moors and Indians, in singularly arranged dresses, and a hut or cabin, of the most fanciful character imaginable.^[29] In a Loggia, at Poggio a Caiano, Filippo commenced a Sacrifice, in fresco, for Lorenzo de’ Medici, but this work remained unfinished.^[30] For the nuns of San Girolamo, on the acclivity of San Giorgio, in Florence, he also commenced a picture for the high altar; this was successfully continued after his death by the Spanish painter Alonzo Berughetta, but was finished by other artists, the Spaniard having returned to his native land before its completion.^[31] The painting in that hall of the palace of the Signoria, wherein the Council of Eighth^nota hold their sittings, was executed by Filippo, who prepared the drawings for another large picture, with its decorations, to be placed in the Hall of the Council; but the death of the master ensuing soon after, this design was never put into execution, although the ornament or frame-work was already carved, and is now in the possession of Messer Baccio Baldini, an eminent physician and natural philosopher, who is a lover of all the arts. For the church of the abbey of Florence, Filippo painted a very beautiful figure of San Girolamo;^nota and commenced a Deposition from the Cross, for the friars of the Nunziata: of this latter work he finished the figures from the middle upward only,^nota seeing that he was then attacked by a violent fever, and by that constriction of the throat commonly called quinsy, or squinancia,^nota of which he died in a few days, in the forty-fifth year of his age.

Having been ever courteous, obliging, and. friendly, Filippo was lamented by all who had known him, but more particularly by the youth of Florence, his noble native city; who, in the public festivals, masks, and other spectacles, were always glad to avail themselves of his readiness and inventive genius, for in these matters this artist has never had his equal. Filippo gave proof of so much excellence, in all his actions, as to have entirely efiaced the stain (to whatever extent it may have existed) left to him by his father—efiaced it I say, not only by the eminence he attained in art, wherein he waa inferior to none of his contemporaries—but also by the modest propriety of his life, and above all by an obliging and friendly disposition, the efiect of which on every ^ -t*

p ^{[32] [33] [34] [35]} heart, and its power to conciliate all minds, can be fullj known to those only who have experienced it. Filippo was buried by his sons^[36] in San Michele Bisdomini, on the 13th of April, 1505; and while the funeral procession was passing, all the shops in the Via de’ Servi were closed, as is done for the most part at the funerals of princes only.

Among the disciples of Filippo, none of whom equalled the excellence of their master by many degrees, was Raffaellino del Garbo, who performed many works, of which mention will be made in the proper place;^[37] although he^did not justify the opinion formed and hopes conceived of him by Filippo in his life-time, and when Raffaellino was only a youth. But it is well known, that the fruits do not always fulfil the promise made by the blossoms which are seen in the spring; neither was Niccolb Zoccolo, or as others call him Niccolb Cartoni, who was also a disciple of Filippo, particularly distinguished in art; he painted the wall above the altar.of the church of San Giovanni Decollato, in the city of Arezzo, and a small picture in the church of Sant’ Agnesa, which was tolerably well executed. Over a lavatory, in the abbey of Santa Fiora, there is a picture by this artist, which represents Christ asking water to drink from the woman of Samaria. Niccolb executed many other works, but as they are of ordinary merit only, they need not be enumerated.^[38]

.

1. More frequently called Filippino, as he sometimes subscribes himself, to distinguish his works from those of Fra Filippo, his father.
2. The time of Mantegna that is.
3. The Florentine commentators remark, that Vasari would have expressed himself more accurately, had he said, “among tl^ first;” Squarcione and Mantegna having preceded Filippino in the adoption of vestments after the antique.
4. Benvenuto Cellini relates, in his Autobiography, that he had seen many books in the possession of a son of Filippino, filled with drawings of the Roman antiquities, which the latter had taken from the originals.
5. See the lives of Masolino and Masaccio respectively, vqI. i.
6. The portraits of Antonio Pollaiuolo and Filippo are not in the picture here named, but in that of St. Peter condemned to death.
7. It is now in the church, over the altar of the first chapel to the right of the entrance. — Ed. Flor., 1832.
8. Still in the same chapel. — Ibid.
9. On the suppression of the church, this picture, a Madonna, with the Divine Child, and SS. Jerome and Dominick, was removed to the Rucellai Dalace.—Ibid.
10. This church, properly San Ruffelo, was suppressed, and the fate of the picture is not known; but there is one in the Berlin Gallery, ascribed to Filippino, which has the Crucifix and figures on a gold ground, as here described.
11. The fate of this picture cannot now be ascertained.
12. Masselli informs us that this picture was sold in 1785; and he further says that it was in the Gallery of Munich at the time when he wrote (1838), From the catalogue of that Gallery it would seem to be a figure of the Saviour appearing to the Virgin after his crucifixion. In the predella is the Dead Christ, supported by an Angel with four Saints, SS. Francesco, Domenico, Agostino, and Celestino, namely.
13. A painting by Filippino is still in the Town Hall of Prato, but the figure of San Sebastian is not one of those portrayed in it.
14.  

    “Maiden Mergrete the’ [then]
    Loked her beside,
    And sees a loathly dragon
    Out of an him [corner] glide,
    His eyen were ful griesly,
    His mouth opened wide,
    And Margrete might no where flee
    There she must abide.
    
    “Maiden Margrete
    Stood still as any stone,
    And that loathly worm,
    To her-ward gan gone,
    Took her in his foul mouth,
    And swallowed her flesh and bone.
    Annon he brast—
    Damage hath she none!
    Maiden Mergrete,
    Upon the dragon stood;
    Blythe was her harte
    And joyful was her mood.”—

    Auchinleck MSS. as quoted by Mrs. Jameson. — See Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 130, et seq.

15. This fresco is still in existence, but has been much injured, and more by the barbarous treatment it has received than by time. The dress of the Virgin in particular having been scraped away for the purpose of abstracting the ultra-marine with which it was painted.
16. The church has been suppressed, but we gather from the guides compiled by Trenta and San Quintino, that this picture was not to be found in the building even at the time of its suppression.
17. In the church of San Teodoro in Genoa, is an admirable and well preserved picture by this master; it represents St. Sebastian between St. John the Baptist and St. Francis. In a lunette above these figures is the Virgin with the Child, and with an Angel on each side. This work bears the inscription, Philippus Florentinus faciebat. — Forster.
18. This picture is still in San Domenico, and represents the Marriage of St. Catharine, with St. Paul, St. Sebastian, and other Saints. It bears the following inscription: Opus Filippini Flor. Pict., a. s., m ccccci.— Bianconi, Guida di Bologna.
19. Of the pictures here mentioned as painted for Tanai de’ Nerli, and Piero del Pugliese, no authcTitic account can be obtained. There are two in the Pitti Palace. One, a round picture with the Madonna and Angels; the other, the Death of Lucretia (figures very small), but though both are by Filippino, we will not affirm that these are the works here alluded to by Vasari.— Masselli.
20. See the life of Fra Filippo, ante, p. 86.
21. The frescoes of this chapel, with the exception of the lunette to the right, which is tolerably well preserved, have suffered much, both from time and restoration. —Bottari. 1759, The Disputation of St. Thomas has been engraved in the Ape Italiana delle belle Arti, vol. iii. tav. x.; and by Rosini, Storia, &c., tav. lxviii.
22. The Angel Gabriel may in this instance be considered as announcing the death of the Virgin rather than the birth of the Saviour. This will be determined by the symbol borne in his hand. If that be the lily, it is an Annunciation, commonly so called; if a palm-branch alone, or one crowned with stars, we may consider it the announcement of Death. The painting is still in existence, but the present writer has no immediate opportunity of referring to it, nor is she acquainted with any engraving of this work, though such may and probably does exist.
23. An error most probably of the press. Cardinal Oliviero Caraffa died in 1551, when upwards of eighty years odi. — Ed. Flor., 1846-9.
24. These works also have been ruined by restorers. —Bottari.
25. The beauty of the female heads is likewise worthy of remark. This work is upon the whole in tolerable preservation, except that it has been somewhat injured in the lower parts. It has also been restored to a certain extent, as we learn from a marble tablet in the chapel. This was done by command of the brothers Filippo and Ferdinando Strozzi, in the year 1753.
26. For the legend of Drusiana, the reader is referred to Mrs. Jameson’s Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 128, where he will also find some judicious remarks on this picture.
27. Still in good preservation.
28. The reader who shall desire minute details respecting the House of Medici in its different branches, will find, them in the Famiglie celebri Italiane, of Count Pompeo Litta.
29. This picture is in the Gallery of the Uffizj, it is in good preservation, and bears the name of the master.— Masselli
30. This work also is still in existence.—Ibid.
31. Alonzo Berrughetta of Paredes, one of the imitators of Michael Angelo, is the artist here meant. — See Fiorillo, GeseMchte der Malerei, vol. iv. p. 94.—German Edition of Vasari.
32. This work, long attributed to Ghirlandajo, but restored to its author by Rumohr, is also in the Uffizj; it represents the Virgin enthroned with Saints, Angels, &c.
33. Of this picture no well-authenticated information can be obtained.
34. The figures in the upper part of the painting, that is to say, not, as the manner of Vasari might imply, the upper half of the figures. The lower part of the picture was painted by Pietro Perugino: the work is now in the Florentine Academy of the Fine Arts.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
35. Then called, spremanzia, sprinanzia, scheranzia, now angina. — Ibid.
36. The Italian commentators remark that the eldest son of Filippo could not have been more than seven years old, at the time of his father’s death, the latter not being married until the year 1497; but trie children, as the parties most deeply interested, might still be considered as chief mourners, which is all that Vasari need here be considered to mean.
37. In the life of Raffaellino del Garbo, which follows.
38. The Florentine edition of Vasari, published in 1772, declares the frescoes painted by Niccold, in the church of San Giovanni Decollato, to have been in existence at that time, as was also the picture of the Samaritan in Santa Flora, The picture in Sant’ Agnesa has long been lost