Fra Filippo Lippi 1406(?)–1469
NG 666–NG 667  
Medici (Overdoor?) Panels

Dillian Gordon, 2003

Extracted from:
Dillian Gordon, The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2003).

NG 666
The Annunciation

c. 1450–3

Egg tempera on wood, 68.6 x 152.7 cm

NG 667
Seven Saints

c. 1450–3

Egg tempera on wood, 68.0 x 152.8 cm

The Annunciation (NG 666) and the Seven Saints (NG 667) were almost certainly painted as pendants and commissioned by a member of the Medici family for one of the Medici dwellings in Florence.

The Annunciation

The Angel Gabriel, with magnificent peacock wings, is about to raise his right hand in blessing; in his left hand he holds a stem of lilies. He hovers above a flowered lawn, in front of a walled garden (hortus conclusus). The Virgin has been reading near her bedchamber, which has an inlaid marble floor. She is sitting on a chair draped with a cloth of gold that spreads out in front of her. She leans slightly forward with bowed head, averting her eyes from the direct gaze of the angel. Behind her is her bed, decorated with intarsia. In the centre of the painting the hand of God sends a dove in a golden spiral towards a slit in the Virgin’s robe, from which emanate dotted golden rays. A stone urn with lilies (fig. 1) echoing those of the angel rests precariously on the parapet of pietra serena with an Ionic capital, below which is carved the Medici device of three feathers in a diamond ring. In the background is a doorway with a view of the beginning of a flight of steps.

The Virgin’s bed, with a chest at one end and the chest/step at the side, faithfully reflects the design of fifteenth‐century Florentine beds.¹

Technical Notes

Panel construction

Maximum height to top of arch 68.6 cm (a very slender fillet has been added around the arch). Width, including added strips at each side, 152.7 cm; excluding added strips at each side, 152.1 cm. Height of the left vertical side 30.7 cm; height of the right vertical side 29.5 cm. The panel has been planed to a thickness of 1.2 cm.

From the X‐radiograph it seems that the painting consists of three horizontal planks, measuring between 17 and 28 cm in width. The panel has been cradled, probably in Florence in the mid‐nineteenth century. The fillet may have been added at the same time. Across the central horizontal member of the cradle are the letters G.M., and below, on the central member, No.21./0. On the fourth member of the cradle, seen from the left, is pencilled 50.

Subject

The Annunciation is described in Luke 1:26–38.

Iconography

The Annunciation was an extremely popular subject in Florence, which venerated the miracle‐working image in Santissima Annunziata and where, as in a number of cities, the calendar year began on 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation (see also p. 415). It was a subject Lippi treated at least thirteen times. The iconography of NG 666 has been fully discussed by Edgerton and Steinberg.² They link it with the science of optics and theological dogma, and see the impregnation of the Virgin by the Dove as reflecting the perception of light as understood in fifteenth‐century Florence, namely [page 145] as a synthesis of visual reception and ocular radiation. They also argue that the iconography reflects the thinking and sermons of Antonino Pierozzi, Archbishop of Florence and close adviser to the Medici, especially to Lucrezia Tornabuoni, wife of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici.

The scattering of golden rays symbolising impregnation is earlier found in the two versions of the Annunciation (Pinacoteca Vaticana and private collection) painted by Gentile da Fabriano (fig. 2).³ The piercing of the Annunciate Virgin’s dress is found already in fourteenth‐century sculpture (fig. 3) and painting.⁴ The division of the composition into two, with the angel alighting on a flowery meadow and the Virgin in an interior, is found in a late fourteenth‐century fresco of the Annunciation (fig. 4) on the interior of the façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.⁵

Although Lippi had previously used peacock feathers for Gabriel’s wings – for example, in the Annunciation for the Murate (now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich), thought to date from c. 1443⁶ – it is worth noting that peacock wings would have had an added resonance in the context of the Medicean connections of NG 666, since the peacock was also a personal device of the Medici.⁷

Seven Saints

The seven saints are seated on a white marble bench with inlaid panels of coloured marble. At the centre is Saint John the Baptist; on either side of him are Saints Cosmas and Damian in their customary red robes, their golden medicine boxes on the ledge behind.⁸ The three central saints are slightly separated from the paired saints who sit on the returns on either side of them. To the left is Saint Lawrence, dressed as a deacon, a martyr’s palm between his clasped hands, the grill of his martyrdom behind him.⁹ Beside him is Saint Francis, seen in profile, his hands crossed in front of him, his stigmata depicted in gold.¹⁰ To the right is Saint Anthony Abbot, holding a staff¹¹ and turning with a gesture towards Saint Peter Martyr, who leans contemplatively on a book, with a knife buried in his scalp.¹² The light falling from the left casts shadows on the parapet behind. There are flowering shrubs similar to those in NG 666 in front of and to the side of the bench, and behind is a landscape with trees and a view to a distant castello (fig. 8). The rectangular panels of inlaid marble echo the floor of NG 666, but are of a different colour.

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[page 149]

Technical Notes

Panel construction

Maximum height to top of arch 68 cm. Width, including added strips at side, 152.8 cm; width, excluding added strips at side, 151.8 cm. Height of left vertical side 30 cm; height of right vertical side 30.5 cm. The panel has been planed to a thickness of 1.3 cm. The panel has an identical cradle to NG 666. Nothing is written on the back except the number 49 in pencil.

The X‐radiograph indicates that the painting is constructed from three horizontal planks, measuring between 17.5 cm and 29 cm in width. The similarities with NG 666 suggest that both panels were constructed at the same time, perhaps using planks of wood hewn from the same tree trunk.

The Annunciation and The Seven Saints:
Restoration

X‐radiographs confirm that NG 666 and NG 667 were made up on all the edges in a nineteenth‐century restoration with a border measuring between 2 cm and 2.5 cm around the arch in NG 666, and between 2.3 cm and 3.3 cm in NG 667, but with the retouching extending in places into the original painted surface. Along the bottom of both paintings is a strip of restoration about 6.5 cm deep. The left and right edges are original – the paint reaches to the edge.

Although NG 666 and NG 667 have been extended in the same way, the restorations seem to be by two different hands, and in this context it is interesting that the panels were in different collections between the years 1855 and 1861 (see Provenance). In NG 666 the repairs to the gilding are crude and often disfiguring, especially around the head of the Virgin (see detail on p. 153), where the outline of her head is distorted, and along the profile of the angel (see detail opposite), whereas in NG 667 the repairs to the gilding are well done.

Condition and Technique

The varnish and nineteenth‐century restorations are now discoloured.

In NG 666 the landscape and architectural setting have suffered some damage, but the figures are generally well preserved. The robe of the Virgin is abraded and there are small scattered retouchings. The red lake in her dress has faded and become transparent, as has the robe of the angel, revealing the characteristic underdrawing of a few widely spaced, thick, short parallel strokes. This underdrawing material is, however, relatively transparent to infra‐red.

The decoration is achieved by various combinations of mordant gilding and painted effects, a technique typical of Lippi’s works (see also NG 727, p. 275): the border of the Virgin’s robe at the bottom has been water‐gilded, painted, and then the pattern carefully scraped through (sgraffito), while on her shoulder the border is partly mordant gilt (retouched) and painted; the spirals above the dove are made up of both mordant‐gilded and painted spots, and similarly the opening in the Virgin’s robe (see detail on p. 153) has some mordant‐gilded and some painted dotted rays.

Apart from the haloes, the water‐gilding is generally well preserved: the cloth of honour is water‐gilded, and has an incised and punched pattern with a sgraffito border and a brownish glaze for the folds; its dark green lining has flaked badly. The angel’s wings, shoulder feathers, and cuffs, collar and front are water‐gilded. The sgraffito decoration on the robes is a blue paint mixed with white and then scraped through to the gold beneath; the shoulder feathers are glazed with red lake mixed with white (now very damaged) and a green which has discoloured. The water‐gilded wings are glazed with red lake, green, and blue mixed with white for the peacock eyes – all well preserved.

Some indecision in the position of the angel’s hands is evident in the X‐radiograph. Vermilion dots are randomly applied over part of the angel’s folds of drapery. The main architectural lines have been incised, especially the horizontals.

NG 667 has suffered overall wear and abrasion. The landscape and architecture are well preserved, but the figures are worn, particularly in the flesh painting. There are numerous discoloured retouchings, and extensive stippled and hatched retouching in all the flesh painting, which has tended to discolour to grey, especially in the face of John the Baptist and in his right foot. In spite of the poor condition, some of the draperies retain the very fine hatching in the modelling of folds.

NG 667 was extensively underdrawn with a brush (unlike NG 666, the drawing material used here registers in infrared reflectography; see figs 6 and 7) and a number of changes were made, particularly in the positions of the hands; for example, Saint Anthony Abbot’s right hand was originally lower, with an open palm, rather than pointing upwards. Some of the paint has become transparent – especially the red lakes, which have faded, revealing the bold underdrawing in the pinks of Saints Cosmas and Damian. There has almost certainly been some fading of the red lake component of the purples.

As in NG 666, both mordant‐gilded and painted dots are used, for instance in the foliage of the trees. The mordant gilding is well preserved in the caps and boxes of Saints Cosmas and Damian, the staff of the Baptist’s cross, the borders of the robes, Saint Anthony Abbot’s staff and the stigmata of Saint Francis. Again as in NG 666, the architectural lines have been incised, except for the short receding orthogonals of the tiled floor.

There is a pentimento in the Baptist’s pointing fingers, which originally extended further up. Where the edges of the painted areas overlap the gilding of the haloes, the artist has first painted a layer containing lead white, which is visible in the X‐radiograph, both to obscure the gold and perhaps to improve the adhesion of the paint layers.

Patronage and Date¹³

The provenance of these two panels from the Palazzo Riccardi (formerly Palazzo Medici) in the Via Larga (now Via Cavour) in Florence strongly suggests a Medicean origin. The emblem of three feathers within a ring, here carved in the pietra serena of the parapet of the Annunciation, was one of the Medici devices,¹⁴ and all seven saints are connected with the Medici: the larger scale of the two physician saints, Cosmas and Damian (figs 9 and 10), gives prominence to the Medici (medici = doctors).¹⁵ It is generally agreed that NG 667 is imbued with a genealogical significance.¹⁶ However, which member of the Medici family commissioned the panels has not been firmly established.

Martin Davies suggested that the two paintings had ‘a connection’ with the branch of the Medici (see fig. 12) descending from Cosimo, Pater Patriae (1389–1464).¹⁷ He argued that the saints were connected as follows: John the Baptist stood for Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici (1360–1429),¹⁸ who had established the family fortunes; Saints Anthony Abbot, Cosmas, Damian and Lawrence for Giovanni’s four sons – Antonio, Damiano, Cosimo and Lorenzo (1394–1440); Saint Peter Martyr for Cosimo’s son Piero the Gouty (1416–1469), and Saint Francis for Piero’s father‐in‐law, Francesco.¹⁹ Damiano and Antonio, according to Litta, had died in infancy, Damiano in 1390 and Antonio in 1398; as Davies observed,²⁰ it is extremely unlikely that Litta would have invented them. Davies’s implicit argument for Cosimo as patron is supported by the emphasis placed on Saint Cosmas. He not only sits on the right hand of the Baptist, who is of course one of the patron saints of Florence, but appears to be the recipient of some kind of vision; he alone of all the saints is looking upwards with raised hands.

Davies linked NG 667 with a picture of eight saints painted by Baldovinetti (fig. 11) for the Medici villa in Cafaggiolo, now in the Uffizi, Florence, which shows the same saints as NG 667 with the addition of Saint Julian and is thought to have been commissioned to celebrate the birth in 1453 of Giuliano, whose father Piero was Cosimo’s eldest son.²¹ The omission of Julian from NG 667 would therefore give it a terminus ante quem of 1453. Davies suggested that the Annunciation, NG 666, was commissioned in expectation, rather than celebration, of the birth of Lorenzo, later called the Magnificent, in 1449.²²

Francis Ames‐Lewis took up the thrust of Davies’s arguments and developed them in a different direction. He argued more specifically that the paintings were overdoors for the Palazzo Medici and that they were commissioned by Piero di Cosimo, ‘il Gottoso’, whose personal device was, from 1447, three feathers within a diamond ring.²³ He later pursued this line of reasoning in greater detail,²⁴ seeing John the Baptist both as standing for the city of Florence and as alluding to Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici,²⁵ with Cosmas standing for Cosimo ‘il Vecchio’, Pater Patriae, Lawrence for Cosimo’s brother Lorenzo, and Peter Martyr for Piero di Cosimo himself. Ames‐Lewis suggested that Saint Francis stands for Lorenzo’s son Pierfrancesco (1430–1476).²⁶ In this account the paintings are explained not merely as a family tree, but also as a statement of the Medici’s civic and political position in Florence, [page 151]and as having a quasi‐narrative import of lineage and dynastic succession, probably having been commissioned to celebrate the birth of Lorenzo.²⁷ Ames‐Lewis noted that all seven saints, including Anthony Abbot and Francis, with the addition of Saint Julian, are mentioned in the dedicatory introduction to an inventory of the possessions of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici dated 1465: Alnome sia dell’omnipotente dio et della sua gloriosa madre madonna sancta maria sempre vergine et di miss. sancto Giovanbatista et di miss. sancto Lorenzo et di miss. sancto Cosimo et miss. sancto Damiano et di mess. Sancto Antonio et di mess. sancto Piero martire et di mess. sancto Francescho et di mess. sancto Giuliano et universalmente di tucta latra celestiale corte di paradiso…²⁸(In the name of God omnipotent and of His glorious mother Saint Mary, ever virgin, and of Saint John the Baptist and of Saint Lawrence and of Saints Cosmas and Damian and of Saint Anthony and of Saint Peter Martyr and of Saint Francis and of Saint Julian and universally of the whole heavenly court of paradise…) If one interprets the selection of saints in this invocation, and likewise that of the saints in the painting of the Seven Saints, as having a dynastic significance – since both include the name saints of the male members of the Medici family, either living or of the two preceding generations (see family tree, fig. 12) – this gives the painting a terminus ante quem of 1453, [page 152]the date of birth of Giuliano, as initially argued by Davies. Maria Grazia Ciardi Dupré dal Poggetto also saw the paintings as having been commissioned by Piero ‘il Gottoso’, between 1449 (the birth of Lorenzo) and 1453 (the birth of Giuliano).²⁹

In the context of the possible patronage of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, it may be relevant that he ostentatiously showed his devotion to the miracle‐working image of the Annunciation in the church of Santissima Annunziata by refurbishing it with a marble tabernacle between 1448 and 1452.³⁰

It is nevertheless impossible to dismiss entirely Jeffrey Ruda’s suggestion that the two paintings could have been commissioned by Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo di Giovanni di Bicci, who shared the five ‘ancestral’ saints at the centre of NG 667 and whose name saints, Peter Martyr and Francis, sit at either end of the composition; he received full ownership of the Casa Vecchia in 1456, which could possibly, although not necessarily, provide a terminus post quem of 1456.³¹

The assumption is usually that NG 666 and NG 667 were both painted at the same time, and their stylistic and technical similarities, as well as their formal and iconographic coherence, support this. Although some scholars have dated the panels early in Lippi’s career,³² comparisons have been made with the Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Michael (Cleveland Museum of Art; figs 13 and 14) and the Berlin Adoration of the Child: by Georg Pudelko in 1936, endorsed by Robert Oertel in 1942, by Mary Pittaluga in 1949, and most recently by Ruda in 1993.³³ The two Cleveland panels are from an altarpiece commissioned by Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici in 1456 as a gift for Alfonso V of Naples.³⁴ The altarpiece was the subject of a letter from Lippi to Giovanni di Cosimo in 1457 and was delivered in Naples in 1458.³⁵ The head of Saint Anthony compares well with the head of that saint in NG 667 and the clear profile of Saint Michael is similar to that of the Angel Gabriel in NG 666. The treatment of drapery and the ‘floating’ position of Saint Michael and Saint Anthony in a flowery foreground are similar to those of Gabriel in NG 666. It is feasible to see NG 666 and NG 667 as leading up to the Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Michael, as probably painted c. 1450–3, and as designed for the new Medici palace, the building of which began in 1444/6.³⁶

Function

NG 666 and NG 667 have a similar viewpoint and were evidently designed as pendants for a domestic rather than liturgical setting. In their present condition it is impossible to be sure whether their arched shape is original, or whether the panels could once have been rectangular. Until this can be resolved, their original function remains impossible to determine, although it should be emphasised that in both panels the composition seems perfectly designed to fit within the arched shape. Marchini suggested that the paintings could have been either bedheads or overdoors,³⁷ and their dynastic iconography would certainly be appropriate for bedroom furniture. Medieval and Renaissance bedheads, whether of lettiere (night beds) or lettucci (day beds), are generally rectangular in shape: there is a rectangular painted bedhead with the Virgin and Child and a donor, dated 1337, in Pistoia, Ospedale del Ceppo;³⁸ the painted bedhead in Giovanni di Paolo’s painting of the Birth of John the Baptist (NG 5453; see p. 86) is also rectangular; the bedhead in NG 666 itself is rectangular and decorated with intarsia – but there is a documented example of a lunette‐shaped bedhead in 1458.³⁹

Ames‐Lewis originally considered NG 666 and NG 667 to have been designed as overdoors and for public display,⁴⁰ but subsequently wrote that ‘it may be that they were set into wall‐panelling, or into a piece of furniture such as a lettuccio, rather than that they were free‐standing overdoor panels’.⁴¹ Ruda believed that they were most likely overdoors, although his argument that NG 667 was to the left and perhaps closer to a light source because of its paler tonality⁴² must be treated with caution, given the condition of the painting – especially the probable degree of fading of the pigments (noted above). Maria Grazia Ciardi Dupré dal Poggetto thought they would have been sopraporte in the scrittoio or studiolo, complementing the ceramic scodelle (now in London, Victoria and Albert Museum) by Luca della Robbia in the vaults, showing the signs of the zodiac and the labours of the months, with the Annunciation there for the beginning of the Florentine calendar year and the Seven Saints showing the protection offered by the Medici saints throughout the year.⁴³

The absence of any damage such as scratches or dents on the paintings suggests that their location was remote from the wear that anything set into wall panelling or functioning as furniture might have received. The Annunciation was a suitable subject for an overdoor, presumably because of the implicit notion of welcoming a messenger or guest (see also under NG 248, p. 138), or of a prelude; an example painted by Giovanni dal Ponte within a semicircular lunette is found, for instance, at the top of stairs in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, outside the Sala del Dugento towards the courtyard.⁴⁴

Provenance

Both NG 666 and NG 667 were acquired shortly before 1848 from Palazzo Riccardi by the Metzger brothers of Florence;⁴⁵ NG 666 was seen at their shop by Eastlake in 1855, at which time NG 667 had already been sold to Alexander Barker.⁴⁶ NG 667 is mentioned in Waagen’s supplement as in the Barker Collection;⁴⁷ it was purchased from Alexander Barker in 1861. NG 666 was acquired by Sir Charles Eastlake in or after 1855, and was presented by him at the time that NG 667 was purchased.

Exhibited/Loaned

London 1858 (NG 667 only), BI (21);⁴⁸ Cheltenham 1915–18, Art Gallery and Museum (long‐term loan); London 1972, NG , The Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael (no catalogue).

Select Bibliography

• M. Davies, ‘Fra Filippo Lippi’s Annunciation and Seven Saints’, Critica d’Arte, VIII, 1950, pp. 356–63.
• G. Marchini, Filippo Lippi, Milan 1975, pp. 26–7 and 206–7, nos 29 and 30.
• F. Ames‐Lewis, ‘Early Medicean Devices’, JWCI , XLII, 1979, pp. 122–43 (pp. 126–31).
• S.Y. Edgerton Jr and L. Steinberg, ‘How shall this be? Reflections on Filippo Lippi’s Annunciation in London’, Artibus et Historiae, 16, 1987, pp. 25–53.
• S.Y. Edgerton Jr, The Heritage of Giotto’s Geometry, Ithaca and London 1991, pp. 88–107.
• J. Ruda, Fra Filippo Lippi. Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue, London 1993, pp. 199–203 and pp. 444–6, no. 50a and b.
• F. Ames‐Lewis, ‘Art in the Service of the Family. The Taste and Patronage of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici’, in A. Beyer and B. Boucher (eds), Piero de’ Medici, ‘il Gottoso’ (1416–1469). Art in the Service of the Medici, Berlin 1993, pp. 207–20 (pp. 209–17).
• F. Ames‐Lewis, ‘Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi and the early Medici’, in F. Ames‐Lewis (ed.), The early Medici and their artists, London 1995, pp. 107–24 (pp. 119–20).
• M.G. Ciardi Dupré dal Poggetto, ‘I dipinti di Palazzo Medici nell’inventario di Simone di Stagio delle Pozze: problemi di committenza e di arredo’, in La Toscana al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico: Politica, Economia, Culture, Arte. Atti del Convegno di Studi promosso dalle Università di Firenze, Pisa e Siena, 5–8 novembre 1992, Pisa 1996, pp. 131–62 (pp. 149–50).
• E.R. Knauer, ‘Oculus und Maria Verkündigung: Eine Nachlese’, in Festschrift für Matthias Winner, eds V. Fleming and S. Schütze, Mainz 1996, pp. 75–85.

Notes