Cartwright, Julia: The painters of Florence: from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth century (London: John Murray, 1910)

2 l8

FILIPPINO LIPPI

[1457-

the simple charm and grace that are Filippino’s most
attractive qualities.
During the next few years, the young master
painted several of his finest works. In i486, he
finished a large picture of the enthroned Madonna
crowned by angels and attended by the patrons of
Florence, St. Zenobius and the Baptist, St. Bernard
and St. Victor, which is now in the Uffizi. A
companion for this altar-piece, which was destined
for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Pubblico,
had been originally given to Leonardo as far back as
1478, but now that he had left Florence the task was
assigned to Filippino. The Florentine arms appear
in the upper part of the picture, which is remarkable
for its clear, luminous colour and for the lovely angel-
faces that Filippino loves to repeat. The same
transparent hues, the same exquisite boy-angels,
appear in the great picture of the Vision of St.
Bernard, which he painted in 1480, for Piero del
Pugliese’s chapel in the convent church of Campora,
belonging to the Badia of Florence. During the
siege of the city, in 1529, this altar-piece was
removed for safety to the Badia, where it is still the
ornament of that ancient shrine. Here Filippino has
far excelled his father’s version of the same subject,
and never succeeded in rendering so beautiful an ex-
pression as that of St. Bernard as, sitting at his desk,
he gazes in love and yearning at the mild Virgin-face
which has suddenly dawned upon his prayer. To the
same date we may ascribe the Madonna in S. Spirito,
with the fine portraits of the donor, Tanai de’ Nerli,
and his wife, who are presented to her by St. Martin
and St. Katherine, and a distant view of the Porta