Artist of the Day, August 25, 2025 : Filippino Lippi, an Italian painter, Renaissance (#2348)

Filippino Lippi (1457 – 1504) was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. He also worked in Rome for a period from 1488, and later in the Milan area and Bologna.

He worked in oils, tempera and fresco, mostly painting religious subjects, with a few portraits and secular allegories or scenes from classical mythology. 

Filippino (' little Filippo') was probably born in Prato following the elopement of his father Fra Filippo Lippi and Lucrezia Buti. Filippino was a leading Florentine exponent of the tradition of great fresco cycles, as well as an accomplished painter on panel. Filippino's father died in 1469 and he was soon in the workshop of Botticelli, who worked with Filippino on one Adoration of the Kings. A Milanese agent in Florence reported in about 1490, 'Filippino: a pupil of Botticelli and son of the most outstanding master of his time'.

Filippino's fame spread throughout Italy and he painted major series of frescoes in Rome as well as Florence. He was also a renowned painter of altarpieces, receiving commissions from Milan, Bologna and Genoa.

Perhaps through the historical misfortune of being eclipsed by the next generation, in particular by Raphael and Michelangelo, Filippino's contemporary success, greater than even that of his teacher Botticelli, is now forgotten. His sacra conversazione influenced High Renaissance artists and he can be seen as a link between the achievements of the 15th and 16th centuries.

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Self-portrait, circa 1481-82 

Deposition from the Cross, circa 1506

Pietà (The Dead Christ Mourned by Nicodemus and Two Angels), circa 1500

Pieta, circa 1500 detail

Allegory of Music (Erato), circa 1500

The Meeting of Joachim and Anne outside the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, circa 1497

Adoration of the Magi, circa 1496

The Nativity with Two Angels, circa 1495

An Angel Adoring, circa 1495

Assumption and Annunciation, circa 1489-91

The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret, circa 1488–93

St Philip Driving the Dragon from the Temple of Hieropolis, circa 1487-1512

St John the Evangelist Resuscitating Druisana, circa 1487

The Carafa Chapel with late 15th-century frescoes, circa 1488-93

Madonna And Child With Saints, circa 1486

Madonna with Child and Saints, circa 1985-88

Madonna with Child and Saints, circa 1485-88

Three Angels and Young Tobias, circa 1485

The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Dominic, circa 1485

Portrait of a Youth,, circa1485

Bust of an Angel, circa 1485

The Madonna and Child, circa 1484

Madonna and child, circa 1483

Four Saints Altarpiece, circa 1483

Adoration of the Child, circa 1483

Tobias and the Angel, circa 1480

The Vision of Saint Bernard, circa 1480

The Virgin and Child with Saint John, circa 1480

The Adoration of the Kings, circa 1480

The Adoration of the Child, circa 1475-80

Holy family, detail

Portrait of an old man

The Depiction of the Madonna and Child