SO grievously afflicted thereat, that he never more recovered his cheerfulness, and made every possible effort to regain his child. But Lucrezia, whether retained by fear or by some other cause, would not return, but remained with Filippo, to whom she bore a son, who was also called Filippo, and who eventually became a most excellent and very famous painter like his father.[1]
In the church of San Domenico, in this same Prato, are two pictures[2] by this master, and in the transept of the church of San Francesco is another, a figure of the Virgin namely. Desiring to remove this work from its original place, the superintendents, to save it from injury, had the wall on which it was depicted cut away, and having secured and bound it with wood-work, thus transported it to another wall of the church, where it is still to be seen.[3] Over a well, in the court-yard of the Ceppo of Francesco di Marco, there is a small picture on panel by this master, representing the portrait of the above-named Francesco di Marco, the author and founder of that pious establishment. In the Capitular Church of Prato, on a small tablet which is over the side door as one ascends the steps. Fra Filippo depicted the death of San Bernardo, by the touch of whose bier many lame persons are restored to health. In this work are monks bewailing the loss of their master; and the exquisite grace of their heads, the truth and beauty with which their grief, and the plaintive expression of their weeping, are conveyed to the spectator, is a thing marvellous to behold. Some of the hoods and draperies of these monks have most beautiful folds, and the whole work merits the utmost praise for the excellence of its design, composition, and colouring, as well as for the grace and harmony of proportion displayed in it,
- ↑ This son was Filippino Lippi, whose life follows. It is supposed that the carrying off of Lucrezia is the event to which Giovanni de’ Medici refers, where, in a letter to Bartolommeo Serragli, written from Florence, on the 27th of May, 1458, he uses the following words: “And so we laughed a good while at the error of Fra Filippo.”—Gaye, Carteggio inedito d’ Artisti, i. 186.
- ↑ One of these, representing the Birth of the Saviour, is still in the refectory of the Convent of San Domenico.
- ↑ In the various changes suffered by this church, the picture has most probably been destroyed, as it is no longer to be seen.— Ed. Flor. 1832— 1838.
