that saint. Proceeding thus, and improving from day to day, he had so closely followed the manner of Masaccio, and his works displayed so much similarity to those of the latter, that many affirmed the spirit of Masaccio to have entered the body of Fra Filippo. On one of the pillars of the church, near the organ, he depicted the figure of San Marziale, a work by which he acquired great fame, seeing that it was judged to bear a comparison with those executed by Masaccio.[1] Whereupon, hearing himself so highly commended by all, he formed his resolution at the age of seventeen, and boldly threw off the clerical habit.[2]
Some time after this event, and being in the march of Ancona, Filippo was one day amusing himself with certain of his friends in a boat on the sea, when they were all taken l)y a Moorish galley which was cruising in that neighbourhood, and led captives into Barbary, where he remained, suffering many tribulations, for eighteen months. But, having frequent opportunities of seeing his master, it came into his head one day to draw his portrait; and finding an opportunity, he took a piece of cliarcoal from the fire, and with tliat delineated his figure at full length on a white wall, robed in his Moorish vestments. This being related to the master by the other slaves, to all of whom it appeared a miracle, the arts of drawing and painting not being practised in that country, the circumstance caused his liberation from the chains in which he had so long been held. And truly that was greatly to the glory of that noble art; for here was a man to whom belonged the right of condemning and punishing, but who, in place of inflicting pains and death, does the direct contrary, and is even led to show’ friendship, and restore the captive to liberty. Having afterwards[3]
- ↑ All the pictures here described as executed by Fra Filippo Lippi in the church of the Carmine, have been destroyed, partly by time, and partly by the conflagration of 1771. — Masselli.
- ↑ If Filippo, as Della Valle affirms, left his convent after a few months of noviciate, without being professed, how does it happen that he is always called Fra Filippo through his whole life? He painted his own portrait with the tonsure, and his death is registered in the necrology of the Carmelites as that of a member, under the name Frater Philippus. From all these things it is to be supposed that he was certainly professed, if not in full orders.—Ibid.
- ↑ The Florentine commentators accuse Vasari of more than usual inaccuracy as regards the dates in this life. The Germans defend him on
