A man falls in love with his feminine ideal

A man falls in love with his feminine ideal. He is painter and this meeting will disrupt his work. But it is ecclesiastical and his beautiful is a nun. The fiction story of Filippo Lippi (circa 1406-1469) is presented until 2 August at the Luxembourg Museum, in Paris. The subject is attractive. But his treatment is less. 74 Presented works, three are from the hand of Lippi and twelve were carried out in collaboration with another painter, Fra Diamante. The organizer of the exhibitions of the Senate, apparently conflicting relations with specialists of the Renaissance in France and Italy. Loans, especially for works as fragile and little transportable, have therefore been limited.

If one wants to go hunting in the Lippi in Paris at the Louvre, in the Denon wing, you can see "The Virgin and child surrounded by angels", the Panel of an altarpiece of 1437. Museum Jacquemart-André () to June 21 is exposed the Altenburg collection devoted to the Italian primitives, which also contains a beautiful Lippi, "Saint Jerome in penitence and a younger brother carme". Finally, in Florence, at the Gallery of Offices, a room full, grandiose, is devoted to the painter and his florentine period. Or "Thrushes", the Museum of the Senate has therefore expanded the theme in the work of the son of Filippo, rightly named Filippino (1457-1504), and the Renaissance in the city of Prato. The Tuscan city, 15 km from Florence, is particularly successful at the end of the 14th and the 15th century. The large site is that of the Duomo houses a relic: the belt of the Virgin. Filippo belongs to the order of the Carmelites. This is not a vocation, but a family decision. There are at this time in Prato a strong artistic scene in which he mingles willingly.

"Passionate and turbulent."

The curator of the exhibition, Cristina Gnoni-Mavarelli describes a man "passionate and turbulent, who lived in full contrast with the discipline of his order, loving the beauty and life in its fullness." Indeed, in 1456, he removes the nun Lucrezia Buti, that it "sweeps" at the convent of Sainte-Marguerite. It will give several Filippino children. Later, Pope Pius II issue them their wishes. Between 1452 and 1466, the painter animates a workshop composed of many apprentices, which will give him a certain respect. Lippi marks the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance: it prints with realistic details in his performances. In his "Virgin and child clad", dated to the years 1450, is fully trapped in its swaddling baby that attracts the eye. Unlike the usual Jésus small, dead eyes, he expressed through his eyes almost adult worry.

Realism is also in his "Nativity with St. George and St. Vincent Ferrer", performed to 1456 with his faithful collaborator Fra Diamante. The Virgin in the pale face, serene expression and regular features would rightly be Lucrezia Buti. The famous historian Bernard Berenson recognizes the brush of Lippi only in the drawing of the head of the Virgin, the child and in the hands of saint Vincent. Lippi, the father, will remain in history for her powerful portraits of Madonnas of profile.