Barbadori Altarpiece

Barbadori Altarpiece
Barbadori Altarpiece
Artist	Filippo Lippi
Year	1438
Medium	oil on panel
Dimensions	208 cm × 244 cm (82 in × 96 in)
Location	Louvre, Paris

The Barbadori Altarpiece is an altarpiece painting by Filippo Lippi, dated to 1438 and now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It may be considered as a very early sacra conversazione.^[1]

History

Gherardo di Bartolomeo Barbadori, who died childless in 1429, left his heritage to the Captains of Orsanmichele for the realization, in the church of Santo Spirito, Florence, of a chapel dedicated to Saint Fridianus. The chapel was built in the old sacristy of the church and in 1433 it was decided to place an altarpiece there. The work was commissioned to Filippo Lippi around 1437, and a letter from Piero de' Medici to Domenico Veneziano, dated 1 April 1438, mentions the altarpiece as having not been finished yet.

The painting remained in Santo Spirito until 1810, when it was disassembled and brought to France by the Napoleonic troops. After the 1815 restoration it was not given back.

Description

The panel follows the traditional polyptych pattern of the time only in the upper part, which has arcades and columns. Also differently from previous works, Lippi painted the Virgin as standing, and made her the central point of the composition. The size and placement of the figures is to show hierarchical importance.^[1]

The angel on the left pulling up his garment is inspired by a figure in Nanni di Banco's group of the "Quattro Coronati", a sculpture in a niche of Orsanmichele. Another element of innovation (introduced at the same time by Fra Angelico) was the lack of a gold ground or gilded background, replaced by an architectural space with a window opening to hilly landscape, inspired by Early Netherlandish painting. The shell-shaped niche in the background, a typical element of 15th century Florentine painting, and of Lippi in particular, is inspired by a niche in the Tribunale of the Mercanzie in Orsanmichele, designed by Donatello.

The kneeling saints are Saint Augustine on the right and Saint Fridianus on the left. On the far left is a self-portrait of Lippi, identified as the young monk behind the balustrade.^[2]

The work was originally accompanied by a predella, which was returned to Florence after the fall of Napoleon and is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It includes three panels depicting St. Fridianus Changing the Course of the Serchio, An Angel Foretells the Virgin Mary's Death to Her, with the Arrival of the Apostles and St Augustine's Vision of the Holy Spirit.

Predella of the Barbadori Altarpiece

References

^ ^a ^b Shell, Curtis (1961). "The Early Style of Fra Filippo Lippi and the Prato Master". The Art Bulletin. 43 (3): 197–209.
^ Zirpolo, Lilian H. (2016). Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts (2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 82. ISBN 978-1442264670.

Sources

De Vecchi, Pierluigi; Elda Cerchiari (1999). I tempi dell'arte. Milan: Bompiani. ISBN 88-451-7212-0.

External links

Page about the painting (in Italian)

[:0-1] Shell, Curtis (1961). "The Early Style of Fra Filippo Lippi and the Prato Master". The Art Bulletin. 43 (3): 197–209.

[2] Zirpolo, Lilian H. (2016). Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts (2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 82. ISBN 978-1442264670.

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