around 1406 -1469 · Florentine Renaissance, Carmelite grace and facial poetry

Tender virgins, delicate profiles, familiar angels and luminous architectures make Fra Filippo Lippi a master of sacred humanity in the Quattrocento.

Fra Filippo Lippi was born in Florence around 1406. Orphaned at a very young age, he was entrusted to the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria del Carmine and took his vows. In the convent church, he discovered the frescoes of the Brancacci chapel painted by Masaccio and Masolino. From Masaccio, he retains volume, light and the ability to give sacred figures a human presence. His own way, however, becomes more linear, more decorative and more intimate. Supported by the Medici, Lippi works for Florence, Prato and Spoleto. His Annunciations combine perspective architecture, precious wings and silent exchange. His Virgins have the face of a real young woman; the Child moves, the angels smile and the sacred relationship takes on the closeness of a family. The Portrait of a Woman and a Man at the Window is among the first great experiences of the Florentine double portrait: profile, costume, architecture and social gaze construct a story without spectacular gesture. In Prato, the cathedral cycle allows him to display dance, crowds and successive stories on a monumental scale. His relationship with Lucrezia Buti, nun who became his companion and mother of Filippino, nourishes a famous biography but should not mask the importance of his workshop. Fra Diamante and young Botticelli participated in the dissemination of his flexible line. Lippi died in Spoleto in 1469 during the cathedral construction site. His art links the solidity of Masaccio to the elegance that will dominate Botticelli's Florence. The "Fra Filippo Lippi" selection notably compares The Annunciation and The Coronation of the Virgin. His reading favors movement.

Fra Filippo Lippi brings heaven closer to the human face: faith comes through a calm hand, a precise profile, a mobile child or the discreet smile of an angel.