_Filippino Lippi_ (Florentine: 1457-1504).
Filippo Lippi, the younger (called "Filippino" to distinguish
him from his father), was the son of Fra Filippo Lippi (see
666), and the nun, Lucrezia Buti. In his will, Filippino left
an annual provision of corn, wine, oil, and other necessaries
to his beloved mother Lucrezia, daughter of Francesco Buti.
There is perhaps no other case in art-history of father and son
attaining such nearly equal excellence as did the two Lippis.
Owing to his father's death when Filippino was still a boy,
the latter became the pupil of Botticelli, and so good a pupil
was he that the critics are often in doubt, as explained in
the footnote, to which master to ascribe pictures.[138] The
genius of Filippino seems to have been the more gentle, that of
Botticelli the more impetuous. The grace and charm of Filippino
are nowhere better shown than in the "Vision of St. Bernard,"
in the church of the Badia at Florence--a work executed when
he was about 23. A copy of it is in the Arundel Society's
collection. The pictures in our Gallery which are indubitably
by Filippino (namely, this picture and 927), show the same
quiet beauty. Filippino was also employed upon important
frescoes--in the Branacci Chapel, in Sta Maria Novella, and (at
Rome) in Sta Maria Sopra Minerva; in these works he shows great
skill in composition, appropriate action, and refined feeling.
Filippino lived a busy and a blameless life; and the peace and
beauty of his pictures were a reflection of his character.
"Having been ever courteous, obliging, and friendly, Filippino
was lamented," says Vasari, "by all who had known him, but more
particularly by the youth of Florence, his native city; and
when his funeral procession was passing through the streets,
the shops were closed, as is done for the most part at the
funerals of princes only."
This picture is identified by the arms of the Rucellai family below, as
the one described by Vasari as "executed in the church of San Pancrazio
for the chapel of the Rucellai family." After the suppression of the
church, it was removed to the Palazzo Rucellai until it was purchased
for the National Gallery.