Double portrait of Piero del Pugliese and Filippino Lippi

Filippino Lippi created this double portrait of Piero del Pugliese and himself around 1486, one of the Renaissance's rare direct documents of friendship between patron and artist. Piero del Pugliese was a prominent Florentine merchant and collector who commissioned several works from Filippino, including the renowned Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Bernard now in the Badia Fiorentina. The double portrait format — both men shown as social equals worthy of artistic commemoration — reflects the elevated social status that leading artists had achieved in late 15th-century Florence. Filippino's inclusion of himself reveals his self-consciousness as an artist and his awareness of the humanist tradition of artists' self-portraits that Ghiberti and other predecessors had established in the city.

Tempera on panel with careful rendering of both sitters' features. The double portrait format and the informal composition suggest the personal nature of the relationship between painter and patron.