Alessandri Altarpiece

Last updated
Alessandri Altarpiece by Filippo Lippi Saint Lawrence Enthroned with Saints and Donors MET DT340533.jpg
Alessandri Altarpiece by Filippo Lippi
Damage to the left of the painting Lippi, pala alessandri 2.jpg
Damage to the left of the painting
Damage to the right of the painting Lippi, pala alessandri 3.jpg
Damage to the right of the painting

The Alessandri Altarpiece is a tempera on panel painting by Filippo Lippi, also known as Saint Lawrence Enthroned Between Saints Cosmas and Damian and Donors and Saint Lawrence Enthroned with Saints and Donors. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. [1]

The dating is uncertain - most art critics place it between the mid 1440s and the early 1450s, though some hypothesize it may have been a family gift to Ginevra degli Alessandri on her marriage to Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici on 20 January 1453. The work is originally thought to have consisted of a single panel, later divided up and finally restored into its present form as a triptych by Federico Zeri in 1971 by repainting vast areas at the base of the panel and Lawrence's legs. [2] Another kneeling figure is almost completely lost and other parts of the painted surface are damaged or lost. [3]

History

It is thought to be the painting mentioned in Vasari's Lives of the Artists as being produced for the Alessandri family villa at Vincigliata near Florence. Around 1790 it was moved to the family's palazzo in Borgo Albizi in Florence. In 1912 it was sold to a London art dealer, who sold it on to another in New York, from which it passed to its present owner in 1935.

Related Research Articles

Sandro Botticelli 15th and 16th-century Italian Renaissance painter

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

Filippino Lippi Italian painter (1457-1504)

Filippino Lippi was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance.

Santa Maria Novella

Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.

Filippo Lippi 15th-century Italian Renaissance painter

Fra'Filippo Lippi, also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento.

Raffaellino del Garbo

Raffaellino del Garbo was a Florentine painter of the early Renaissance.

Brancacci Chapel

The Brancacci Chapel is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Felice Brancacci and begun in 1422. The paintings were executed over the years 1425 to 1427. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.

Fra Carnevale Italian painter

Fra Carnevale OP was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in Urbino. Widely regarded as one of the most enigmatic artists, Carnivale has only nine works that can be definitively attributed to him. Most of these have even been contested as authentic to Carnevale at various points in history.

Jacopo da Sellaio

Jacopo del Sellaio (1441/1–1493), was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active in his native Florence. His real name was Jacopo di Arcangelo. The nickname Sellaio derives from the profession of his father, a saddler.

Biagio dAntonio

Biagio d’Antonio Tucci was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence, Faenza and Rome.

Francesco Pesellino

Francesco Pesellino, also known as Francesco di Stefano, was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence. His father was the painter Stefano di Francesco, and his maternal grandfather was the painter Giuliano Pesello (1367–1446), from whose name the diminutive nickname "Pesellino" arose. After the death of his father in 1427, the young Pesellino went to live with his grandfather whose pupil he became. Pesellino remained in his grandfather’s studio until the latter’s death, when he began to form working partnerships with other artists, such as Zanobi Strozzi and Fra Filippo Lippi. He married in 1442, and probably joined the Florentine painters' guild in 1447. In the following years he made for reputation with small, highly-finished works for domestic interiors, including religious panels for private devotional use and secular subjects for pieces of furniture.

<i>Coronation of the Virgin</i> (Filippo Lippi)

The Coronation of the Virgin is a painting of the Coronation of the Virgin by the Italian Renaissance master Filippo Lippi, in the Uffizi, Florence.

<i>Barbadori Altarpiece</i>

The Barbadori Altarpiece is a painting by Filippo Lippi, dated to 1438 and housed in the Louvre Museum of Paris.

<i>Seven Saints</i> (Filippo Lippi)

Seven Saints is a tempera on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance master Filippo Lippi, dating to c. 1449–1459, in the collection of the National Gallery, London. It is a pendant to Lippi's Annunciation, also in the National Gallery. The lunettes were commissioned as part of the decoration of the Palazzo Medici in Florence, where they were likely placed above a door or a bed.

<i>Marsuppini Coronation</i>

The Marsuppini Coronation is a painting of the Coronation of the Virgin by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi, dating to after 1444. It is in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome.

<i>Madonna and Child</i> (Lippi) Painting by Filippo Lippi

Madonna with Child is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi. The date in which it was executed is unknown, but most art historians agree that it was painted during the last part of Lippi's career, between 1450 and 1465. It is one of the few works by Lippi which was not executed with the help of his workshop and was an influential model for later depictions of the Madonna and Child, including those by Sandro Botticelli. The painting is housed in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy, and is therefore commonly called “The Uffizi Madonna” among art historians.

Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

The Palazzo Pretorio is a historical building in Prato, Tuscany, italy. It was the old city hall, standing in front of the current Palazzo Comunale. It now accommodates the Civic Museum of Prato, which was reopened on September 2013.

Zanobi Strozzi

Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Strozzi, normally referred to more simply as Zanobi Strozzi, was an Italian Renaissance painter and manuscript illuminator active in Florence and nearby Fiesole. He was closely associated with Fra Angelico, probably as his pupil, as told by Vasari. He is the same painter as the Master of the Buckingham Palace Madonna. Most of his surviving works are manuscript illuminations but a number of panel paintings have also been attributed to him, including seven altarpieces and six panels with the Virgin and Child, along with some designs for metalwork.

Master of Pratovecchio

The Master of Pratovecchio was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, named by Roberto Longhi in a 1952 article on the basis of stylistic similarities of a number of works to an altarpiece painted for the monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista in Pratovecchio. The centre panel of the triptych, depicting the Assumption of the Virgin is currently on deposit in Arrezo; the left and right side-panels are in the National Gallery, London.

<i>Adoration of the Magi</i> (Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi)

The Adoration of the Magi is a tondo, or circular painting, of the Adoration of the Magi assumed to be that recorded in 1492 in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence as by Fra Angelico. It dates from the mid-15th century and is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Most art historians think that Filippo Lippi painted more of the original work, and that it was added to some years after by other artists, as well as including work by assistants in the workshops of both the original masters. It has been known as the Washington Tondo and Cook Tondo after a former owner, and this latter name in particular continues to be used over 50 years after the painting left the Cook collection.

<i>Mystical Nativity</i> (Filippo Lippi) c. 1459 painting by Filippo Lippi

The Mystical Nativity or Adoration in the Forest was painted by Fra Filippo Lippi around 1459 as the altarpiece for the Magi Chapel in the new Palazzo Medici in Florence. It is now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, with a copy by another artist now hanging in the chapel. It is a highly individual depiction of the familiar scene of the Nativity of Jesus in art, placed in a mountainous forest setting, with debris from woodcutting all around, rather than the familiar stable in Bethlehem, and with the usual figures and animals around the mother and child replaced by others.

References

  1. "Catalogue entry".
  2. "Article on the restoration". Archived from the original on 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  3. (in Italian) Maria Pia Mannini, Marco Fagioli. Filippo Lippi. Catalogo completo. Firenze 1997. ISBN   88-8030-016-4