Detail shot of Madonna & Angel's faces
Giotto di Bondone; Madonna & Child
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
Fra Filippo Lippi. c. 1465 C.E. Fllorence, Italy. Tempera on wood
Mary's hands are clasped in prayer, and both she and the Christ child appear lost in thought, but otherwise the figures have become so human that we almost feel as though we are looking at a portrait. The angels look especially playful, and the one in the foreground seems like he might giggle as he looks out at us.
Function:
- Medici family paid for this art
- to show piety
- to show wealth (this guy is a very famous artist)
- Decorative
- to be reminded of Christ’s story
- wanted a humanist image to be able to relate to Mary and Christ
- humanity / realistic
- Artist painted it this way to show how human they are
Content:
- very simple halos (unlike Giotto or Cimabue)
- thin white / yellow circle -- no gold or bright lights etc.
- Mary
- is youthful and beautiful
- sculpted face
- fair
- blond hair
- coiffured hair
- small mouth
- bowed nose
- delicate
- her ear is shown through the translucent part of her headpiece
- has her hands clasped in prayer
- Mary is leaning forward in prayer, facing down almost
- her eyes seem to be on the smiling angel not Christ
- Mary and Christ seem lost in thought
- wearing a headpiece that is both translucent and made of cloth
- green dress with ruffles and buttons
- thin jeweled "crown"
- body had bulk and solidity of her body
- careful folds of drapery around her lap
- sits on an ornate piece of furniture
- The angels
- look playful
- angel in the foreground is smiling at the audience
- one hand under christ and one on his back
- angel in the background
- has half of his face covered by christ
- both angels are holding Christ up as he kneels on them
- their wings seem wooden (brown) rather than feathery and white
- golden curly hair (like christ)
- wearing loose white tunics
- careful folds of drapery around the waist
- healthy, cherub-like
- Christ
- small
- "chubby"
- fair
- blond
- eyes looking up (in thought?)
- arms stretching out towards Mary
- head facing towards her
- facial expression (?)
- a cloth around his midsection and lower torso
- kneeling on angels
- Frame of the window is partly the frame of the painting
- a landscape is seen through a window
- by both christ and mary
- and the audience
- cultivated fields, soaring rocks, a distant city
Context:
- Lots of money in Florence during this time
- growing middle and upper class of merchants and bankers
- lots of money means more indulgences
- "Florence saw itself as the ideal city state, a place where the freedom of the individual was guaranteed, and where many citizens had the right to participate in the government"
- This freedom was threatened several times
- all times it was avoided or they won
- "Florentine citizens interpreted these military "victories" as signs of God's favor and protection. They imagined themselves as the "New Rome" -- in other words, as the heirs to the Ancient Roman Republic, prepared to sacrifice for the cause of freedom and liberty."
- Florentine citizens very proud of their government
- because it valued/respected the opinions of individuals
- this played a huge part in Humanism
- He most likely trained as a painter in a convent
- visual experience of Masaccio and Masolino
- "It is said that Fra Filippo was so lustful that he would give anything to enjoy a woman he wanted if he thought he could have his way, and if he couldn't buy what he wanted, then he would cool his passion by painting her portrait and reasoning with himself. His lust was so violent that when it took hold of him he could never concentrate on his work."
- https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/painting-in-florence/a/lippi-madonna-and-child-with-two-angels
- "In 1456 he abducted a nun, Lucrezia Buti, from the convent in Prato where he was chaplain. He was finally permitted to marry her. Their son Filippino was later taught in Lippi's workshop, as was Botticelli."
- http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/fra-filippo-lippi
- It is said that Mary in this painting (as well as a few of his other paintings) is based on this woman
- https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2004/feb/14/art
- Florence by 1437,
- Lippi painted a Madonna and Child for Corneto Tarquinia (now in the Galleria Nazionale, Rome),
- shows the influence of Donatello's sculpture
- also that of contemporary Flemish painting in its interest in the effects of light and the portrayal of illusionistic details.
- round 1445
- Santa Croce the Virgin and Child with Four Saints, now in the Uffizi;
- a Madonna and Child still in Palazzo Medici;
- "The devout air and gentle naturalism of the artist's last works are exemplified by two Adorations in the Uffizi (one from the convent of the Annalena, the other from the hermitage of Camaldoli), while the search for a more complex compositional balance is evident in the half-length Virgin and Child with Angels in the Uffizi, similarly datable in the 1460s."
- The Medici's were his main patrons
Form:
- "playful"
- no gold
- not solemn and not traditional medieval
- meant to make godly people seem relatable
- Madonna is brought forward
- "Her shadow is on the frame, she is in front of it, like an actor at the front of a stage"
- humanist
- realistic
- mary looks like a woman one could find
- the angels look like children
- naturalism
- angel in the background has half of his face covered by
- slightly somber (not to the extreme of others) in that Mary has the foreknowledge of the fate of her son
- landscape in background has
- atmospheric perspective
- earthly
- which reflects renaissance humanism
- natural
- idea of sensuality
- Madonna Child and Angels
- but also this love of the beauty of what one can see
- importance to decorative components
- i.e. translucent drapery on Mary's head
- also important to Lippi's student - Botticelli
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artist-info.1489.html?artobj_artistId=1489&pageNumber=1
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/painting-in-florence/a/lippi-madonna-and-child-with-two-angels
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/renaissance-art-europe-ap/v/fra-filippo-lippi-madonna-and-child-with-two-angels-c-1460-1465
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/beginners-renaissance-florence/a/florence-in-the-early-renaissance
