Lippi, Filippo (1406-1469)
San Lorenzo in trono con santi e donatori (Saint Lawrence Enthroned with Saints and Donors)
c.1440s
Tempera on wood, gold ground, 121.3 x 115.6 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Saint Lawrence is shown enthroned, with his feet resting on the grill on which he was martyred. He is flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian, whose cult was closely associated with the ruling Medici family. Alessandro Alessandri (1391–1460), a Florentine merchant and member of its civic government, is shown kneeling with his two sons. He was at the height of his political career when he commissioned this altarpiece for the family’s church at Vincigliata in the hills above Florence. Although damaged, cut down, and regilded, it nonetheless testifies to the refined delicacy for which Lippi was so admired. (MET)