San Benedetto ordina a san Mauro di resuscitare san Placido (c.1445-1450)

Lippi, Filippo (1406-1469)

San Benedetto ordina a san Mauro di resuscitare san Placido (Saint Benedict Orders Saint Maurus to the Rescue of Saint Placidus)
c.14451450
Tempera on panel, 40 x 69.5 cm
National Gallery of ArtWashington

Two men are situated inside a coral-red building that fills the left two-thirds of this composition, and two men are shown in a body of water in a landscape to our right in this horizontal painting. The building recedes sharply into the space of the landscape without seeming to be part of it, and the men in the water seem a little too large in relation to the pool, trees, and the building to our left. The men all have pale skin and wear ivory-white robes. The red, arched building spans the entire height of the painting. Inside, a bearded man with a halo sits on a bench facing our right in profile as he holds up his right hand toward the cleanshaven man kneeling in front of him. Short, gold rays emanate from the younger man’s shoulders as he looks up at the older man with his hands tucked into his voluminous sleeves. In the landscape to our right, the two people both have blond hair and halos. One, either a man or a younger boy, seems to kneel in the pool, filling a pitcher with water. He turns to look toward the man standing behind him, who leans over and touches his shoulders. Trees with triangular canopies of dark green leaves have thin, spindly trunks placed regularly across the background with a few on the grassy ground closer to us. (NGA)