DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0189
1469]
WORKS FOR THE MEDICI
151
“ I laughed heartily,” wrote Cosimo’s younger son,
Giovanni de’ Medici, “when I heard of Fra Filippo’s
escapade.” In the same letter, addressed to a
Florentine envoy at the Court of Naples, Giovanni
alludes to the picture by Fra Lippo which he had
presented to King Alfonso, and which had greatly
pleased His Majesty. This little panel, a Madonna
and Child with Angels and a youthful St. Michael, was
painted by the Friar in 1457, after repeated delays and
interruptions. On the 20th of July, he addressed a
letter to his “dearest and most illustrious lord,”
Giovanni de’ Medici, who was spending the summer
in his villa at Fiesole, professing himself to be his
willing slave, and sending a sketch of the proposed
picture, but asking for supplies of money, that he may
obtain gold and silver leaf for the armour and wings of
St. Michael. As usual, he is without a farthing, and has
been unable to work for three days for want of gildings
“ And I entreat you to answer,” he adds ; “ for here 1
am dying, and only long to get away.” This anxiety
to leave Florence was not entirely due to the heat of
the season, or even to the Friar’s desire to see
Lucrezia and her new-born son, for, six weeks later,
a servant of the Medici, Francesco Cantansanti, writes
to inform Giovanni, that up till Saturday evening he
has been vainly urging Fra Filippo to finish the
picture, and now hears that the goods in his shop
have been seized by his creditors, and that he himself
has disappeared. “ But what risks the man runs ! ” is
the conclusion with which the long-suffering agent
ends his tale. The picture in question was eventually
finished by the following spring, and sent to Naples
in May 1458. The next year Fra Lippo found him-
WORKS FOR THE MEDICI
151
“ I laughed heartily,” wrote Cosimo’s younger son,
Giovanni de’ Medici, “when I heard of Fra Filippo’s
escapade.” In the same letter, addressed to a
Florentine envoy at the Court of Naples, Giovanni
alludes to the picture by Fra Lippo which he had
presented to King Alfonso, and which had greatly
pleased His Majesty. This little panel, a Madonna
and Child with Angels and a youthful St. Michael, was
painted by the Friar in 1457, after repeated delays and
interruptions. On the 20th of July, he addressed a
letter to his “dearest and most illustrious lord,”
Giovanni de’ Medici, who was spending the summer
in his villa at Fiesole, professing himself to be his
willing slave, and sending a sketch of the proposed
picture, but asking for supplies of money, that he may
obtain gold and silver leaf for the armour and wings of
St. Michael. As usual, he is without a farthing, and has
been unable to work for three days for want of gildings
“ And I entreat you to answer,” he adds ; “ for here 1
am dying, and only long to get away.” This anxiety
to leave Florence was not entirely due to the heat of
the season, or even to the Friar’s desire to see
Lucrezia and her new-born son, for, six weeks later,
a servant of the Medici, Francesco Cantansanti, writes
to inform Giovanni, that up till Saturday evening he
has been vainly urging Fra Filippo to finish the
picture, and now hears that the goods in his shop
have been seized by his creditors, and that he himself
has disappeared. “ But what risks the man runs ! ” is
the conclusion with which the long-suffering agent
ends his tale. The picture in question was eventually
finished by the following spring, and sent to Naples
in May 1458. The next year Fra Lippo found him-