2007 Archive Edition - See the Archive Notice on the Project
Homepage for more information. Fra. Lippo Lippi An orphan of
Florence, Filippo Lippi (c. 1406-1469) entered the Carmelite
monastery of Sta. Maria del Carmine c. 1420. He was familiar
with the frescoes by Masaccio in the monastery's Brancacci
chapel, and his early work shows, in its use of perspective, the
influence of this painter. Lippi did some work at the cloister
before leaving the monastery in 1432. Vasari, a Renaissance
painter whose lives of his predecessors are considered
unreliable, says that the young monk was kidnapped by Moors, who
released him after he painted a portrait of the man to whom he
had been a slave. After a brief period in Padua, Lippi returned
to Florence in 1437, which is also the year of his earliest
documented painting. The Medici family became his patron. His
work began to show greater use of perspective and more harmony
of color and form. Lippi was named rector of San Quirico at
Legnaia in 1442. Fourteen years later, as