DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0182
144
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
[1406-
new technical methods. The old tempera painting
was good enough for him, and he carried this form of
art to the highest point of perfection, while at the
same time he profited by all the advance which
Masaccio and his followers had made, and gave a
marked impulse to the new realism by the strong
human element which he introduced in his works.
His genial delight in all bright and pleasant things, in
the daisies and the springtime, in rich ornament and
glowing colour, in splendid architecture and sunny
landscapes, in lovely women and round baby-faces,
fitted him in an especial manner to be the herald of
that fuller and larger life which was dawning on the
men and women of the Renaissance.
This painter, who was to carry out Masaccio’s
principles and continue his teaching, began life in the
convent of the Carmelite church, where that short-
lived master painted his great frescoes. Filippo Lippi
was a butcher’s son, and was bom in 1406, in a street
behind the Carmine Church. His mother died at his
birth, and his father two years afterwards, and at the
age of eight the boy was taken to the neighbour-
ing convent by his aunt, Mona Lapaccia, who could
no longer support him. The friars taught him to
read, and placed him in the novices’ school; but instead
of learning grammar the boy drew figures on his
copy-book, and turned musical notes into arms and
legs. Fortunately the Prior encouraged these artistic
tastes, and sent young Lippo to learn of Lorenzo
Monaco, from whom he acquired the skill in handling
colour and glazes that distinguished his tempera-
paintings. Afterwards he studied in the Brancacci
Chapel, where his greatest delight was to watch
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
[1406-
new technical methods. The old tempera painting
was good enough for him, and he carried this form of
art to the highest point of perfection, while at the
same time he profited by all the advance which
Masaccio and his followers had made, and gave a
marked impulse to the new realism by the strong
human element which he introduced in his works.
His genial delight in all bright and pleasant things, in
the daisies and the springtime, in rich ornament and
glowing colour, in splendid architecture and sunny
landscapes, in lovely women and round baby-faces,
fitted him in an especial manner to be the herald of
that fuller and larger life which was dawning on the
men and women of the Renaissance.
This painter, who was to carry out Masaccio’s
principles and continue his teaching, began life in the
convent of the Carmelite church, where that short-
lived master painted his great frescoes. Filippo Lippi
was a butcher’s son, and was bom in 1406, in a street
behind the Carmine Church. His mother died at his
birth, and his father two years afterwards, and at the
age of eight the boy was taken to the neighbour-
ing convent by his aunt, Mona Lapaccia, who could
no longer support him. The friars taught him to
read, and placed him in the novices’ school; but instead
of learning grammar the boy drew figures on his
copy-book, and turned musical notes into arms and
legs. Fortunately the Prior encouraged these artistic
tastes, and sent young Lippo to learn of Lorenzo
Monaco, from whom he acquired the skill in handling
colour and glazes that distinguished his tempera-
paintings. Afterwards he studied in the Brancacci
Chapel, where his greatest delight was to watch