Lippi, Filippino (1457-1504)
Adorazione di Gesù Bambino (Adoration of the Christ Child)
c.1480
Tempera on canvas, diameter 33 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Filippino Lippi was the son of the artist-monk, Fra Filippo Lippi, and himself a pupil of Botticelli. This type of Adoration scene was characteristic of Italian art, being a modification of the scene of the Nativity. Set in a flower-filled meadow surrounded by a balustrade and symbolising Paradise, the scene unfolds before a poetic landscape which seems to be filled with a golden light filtering through the atmosphere. Filippino was one of the first Italian artists to create a landscape in keeping with the mood and appearance of the heroes, creating an inspired emotional setting for them. In the fragile and ethereal Madonna and in the translucent figures of the angels we can feel the mystic exaltation characteristic of Florentine spiritual life in the late 15th century. From 1859 the picture was in Count P.S. Stroganov?s collection, who had identified it and bequeathed it to the Hermitage. (SHM)