Madonna with Child and Angels and Saints
Filippo Lippi·1430
Historical Context
Fra Filippo Lippi painted this Madonna with Child, Angels, and Saints around 1430, early in his career as a Carmelite friar-turned-painter. Working in Florence during the first flowering of the Renaissance, Lippi absorbed the innovations of Masaccio while developing his own lyrical, decorative approach to devotional subjects. The painting is now at Milan's Castello Sforzesco. Characteristic of Lippi's approach, the work displays elegant linear grace, tender humanity, lyrical Madonna types, decorative refinement.
Technical Analysis
The gold ground and hierarchical composition reveal Lippi's roots in the late Gothic tradition, while the three-dimensional modeling of faces and drapery shows the influence of Masaccio's revolutionary naturalism.
