Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain03cham).pdf/110

 École florentine; Dohme, 2i.; Lübke, Gesch. d. ital. Mal., i. 358.

LIPPI, Fra FILIPPO, born in Florence about 1406, died at Spoleto, Oct. 9, 1469. Florentine school; son of a butcher,Tommaso Lippi, whose death in 1414 left him an orphan. When eight years old he was received into the Community of the Carmine, Florence, where Masaccio afterwards painted (1423-28) frescos in the Brancacci Chapel; and he either had lessons from that master or studied his style. Filippo left the convent in 1432, and led for a time, it is said, a wandering life. Vasari represents him as a man of loose habits, and accuses him of the seduction of Lucretia Buti, a novice in the convent of S. Margherita, Prato, who became the mother of Filippino Lippi; but late researches seem to cast some doubt upon this story. It is certain that he bore the title of Frate until his death, that he was poor, with six nieces dependent upon him, and that he was chaplain to the nuns of S. Giovannino, Florence, in 1452, and rector of S. Quirico, Legnaia, in 1457. Fra Filippo was the greatest colourist and the most complete master of the technical difficulties in art of his time. Though inferior in composition to Masaccio, his arrangement of figures is always graceful; and none before him expressed attitude and motion of living figures under draperies as he did. He was among the first to introduce the element of sensuous beauty into sacred pictures, by taking the prettiest faces around him as models for his madonnas. His sacred subjects, too, are often treated in a realistic style that detracts from their dignity, saints and even angels being painted in the Florentine costume of the time, and low, vulgar types selected for the representation of holy personages. His best frescos are the Histories of John the Baptist and of St. Stephen in the choir of the Cathedral at Prato. Those in the apse of the Cathedral of Spoleto were not finished at the time of his death. Fra Diamante was his assistant in these works. Among the best of his many easel pictures are: Coronation of the Virgin, Nativity, Florence Academy; Madonna, Palazzo Pitti; Madonna with Angels, St. Augustine, Uffizi; Nativity, S. Domenico, Prato; Annunciation, Palazzo Doria, Rome; Annunciation, Naples Museum; Madonna in Adoration, Madonna della Misericordia, Berlin Museum; Crucifixion, Städel Gallery, Frankfort; Madonna, Annunciation (2), Old Pinakothek, Munich; Madonna, Königsberg Museum; Nativity, Madonna with Saints, Louvre; Annunciation, John Baptist with Saints, Madonna Enthroned, Madonna and Angel, Vision of St. Bernard, National Gallery, London.—C. & C., Italy, ii. 319; Ch. Blanc, École florentine; Dohme, 2i.; Vasari, ed. Le Mon., iv. 114; Seguier, 84; Burckhardt (Clough), 60; Baldinucci, i. 507; Lübke, Gesch. d. ital. Mal., i. 301.

LIPPINCOTT, WILLIAM H., born in Philadelphia, Pa.; contemporary. Portrait and genre painter, pupil of Léon Bonnat in Paris. Exhibits in Salon and National Academy. Studio in New York, where he is professor in National Academy schools. Elected A.N.A. in 1885. Works: Duck's Breakfast (1876); Lolotte, Portrait of Miss Ethel, Little Prince (1878); Corner of a Farmyard—France (1880); Pont Aven—Bretagne, Light of the Harem (1881); Loan Collection, Two Good Friends, T. B. Clarke, New York; At the Gate—Waiting (1882); Renée, Helena (1883); Happy Hours (1884).

LIPPO DALMASIO (di Dalmasio di Jacopo Scannabecchi), born about 1376, died about 1410. Bolognese school; pupil probably of Vitale de Bologna. Painted figures of a broad instead of slender form, with marked and deep outline and sharp colour, and a tendency to profusion in ornament.