Fra Filippo Lippi and workshop, 'The Virgin and Child', about 1450-60
About the work
Overview
The Christ Child lies in the Virgin Mary’s arms and holds a small bird to his lips. This tender image was intended to show the bond between Christ and his mother.
Christ’s pose is found in paintings of the Virgin adoring the Child that were produced by Lippi and his workshop, such as the so-called Annalena Adoration (Uffizi, Florence). But it’s difficult to assess the degree of Lippi’s involvement here: the picture has been repainted more than once, and once from scratch. Technical analysis has revealed the original version underneath the new one.
The coats of arms may have been added to celebrate a marriage which united two Florentine families – the Strozzi (left) and the Gaetani (right) – in the sixteenth century.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Virgin and Child
- Artist
- Fra Filippo Lippi and workshop
- Artist dates
- born about 1406; died 1469
- Date made
- about 1450-60
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 76.6 × 61 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Lord Brownlow, 1919
- Inventory number
- NG3424
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Bought by Lord Brownlow in Florence in 1874; presented by Lord Brownlow, who was a Trustee of the National Gallery from 1897, in 1919.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 1, London 2003; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1909H. Mendelsohn, Fra Filippo Lippi, Florence 1909
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1919C. Phillips, 'Florentine Painting Before 1500', The Burlington Magazine, I, 1919
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1923R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
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1936G. Pudelko, 'Per la datazione delle opere di Fra Filippo Lippi', Rivista d'arte, 1936, pp. 45-76
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1942R. Oertel, Fra Filippo Lippi, Vienna 1942
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1949M. Pittaluga, Filippo Lippi, Florence 1949
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1975G. Marchini, Filippo Lippi, Milan 1975
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1977J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, I, 1977, pp. 57-9
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1993J. Ruda, Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue, London 1993
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2003Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, 1, London 2003
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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