December's Trip Down Art History Lane

So my pick for this month's art history pic is Madonna and Child with Angels by Fra Filippo Lippi, c. 1455. This is a High Southern Renaissance piece that I studied in my Southern Renaissance class at BYU with Dr. Bule. I loved this class, I think it was probably one of my favorite subjects, second to Northern Baroque. I just loved studying about all the works that are so famous and finding out why they are so important. We studied Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli etc. etc. in the class, but I remember this particular piece by a much lesser known artist, Lippi. I just remember thinking how delicate and innocent the piece seemed and also comical. If you look at the arrangement you start to really wonder why the angels are carrying around the baby Jesus and why Mary doesn't just stop praying and pick him up.:) I also love love whenever an artist has one character in the painting look full center at the viewer (see the little angel looking at you). I don't know why, but that is just something that draws me in and it feels like the actual painter is looking at me across the centuries... I know that sounds all weird, but I like having fun with art!:)

Also if you've ever wanted to read about a 15th century soap opera, just Wikipedia Fra Filippo Lippi. Man, if half the rumors about this painter are true there should be a movie made about this guy. In synopsis, his parents died when he was very young so he was sent to live in a monastery, but as a Friar he was more known for drawing all over his books rather than studying. He left the monastery to be a painter and was well liked and patronised by the Medici family so he was "in" as far as the Florentine art scene was concerned. Well, he was never released from his monastic vows, going by "Fra" or Friar all his life, but he was said to have had a tryst resulting in a illegitimate child with the young woman who sat as model for Mary in this picture.... Wow, isn't that crazy! I'm sure much of it isn't true, but the stories are quite mini-series-ish.:)

I forgot one of the things that I like best about this painting and that is that you can totally see the influence of Leonardo Da Vinci in the background landscape. Of course it is not executed as well as Leonardo (no one really compares to Leonardo), but that rocky landscape didn't come out of no where. I love it when you can see influences in art and see how the art scene in Italy really effected how everyone painted. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during a big Medici party with Raphael, Michelangelo, Lippi, Leonardo, and Botticelli in attendance. To me it is just wild that these amazing and influential painters were all contemporaries - that knew each other and had rivalries and friendships. Neat stuff.