The Adoration of the Child
Filippino Lippi·c. 1475/1480
Historical Context
Filippino Lippi's Adoration of the Child from around 1475-80 is an early work from his period of training with Botticelli, showing him absorbing the elegant linearity of the Botticellian style while already displaying his father's influence in the warm, intimate treatment of the holy family. The Adoration of the newborn Christ — the Virgin kneeling in worship before her own infant, with or without Joseph and other witnesses — was a popular devotional format that reduced the Nativity narrative to its most intimate, meditative moment. Filippino's early treatment reflects the Florentine workshop tradition of producing devotional panels for private clients that sustained both Botticelli's shop and his own emerging practice.
Technical Analysis
Filippino's oil on poplar panel shows his early Botticellian style with delicate linear grace, soft modeling of the Madonna's features, and the refined color harmonies that characterize his apprenticeship years.
Provenance
Grand Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen [1826-1914], by 1872;[1] sold April 1930 by his heirs to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The painting is listed by Jordan in Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, _A New History of Painting Italy, from the II to the XVI Century_, German ed., trans. Max Jordan, 6 vols. in 8 parts, Leipzig, 1869-1876: 4, part 2(1872): 593, as being in the grand ducal collection at Meiningen, but it was probably a relatively recent acquisition. In fact, writing in 1909, Voss (in Georg Voss, _Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen Bau-und Kunst-Denkmäler Thüringens_ no. 34, Jena, 1909, 163-164) states that the paintings were purchased for the most part by Grand Duke Georg II "some decades ago." It can be conjectured that the purchases began (or at least became more numerous) after 1866, when he became _Herzog_ of Saxe-Meiningen. There is a red wax seal of the Saxe-Meiningen family on the reverse of the panel. Although the earlier provenance of the panel is unknown, the presence of a Parisian customs stamp on the back could indicate that at one time the painting belonged to a French collector or dealer. Duveen Brothers also sent the painting to Paris twice (see note 2). [2] The Duveen Brothers prospectus, in NGA curatorial files, says the painting "was disposed of by the _Fideikommisse_ (Trustees) [of the Saxe-Meiningen family] in 1929," and this was the year published in Miklós Boskovits, David Brown et al., _Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art_, Washington, D.C., 2003: 379, as the date of the sale to the dealer. Documents in the Duveen Brothers Records, however, indicate representatives of the dealer first saw the painting in November 1929, and did not finalize the purchase until April 1930. See reel 115, box 260, folder 8, Duveen Brothers Records, accession no. 960015, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copies in NGA curatorial files). [3] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
