THE WIFE IN ART
Fra Lippo Lippi and Lucrezia Buti
TWO
The painter of divine beauties, Filippo Lippi, or as he is often called, Fra Lippo Lippi, was not himself a handsome man. He had rather a full face, large features, and thick lips. Laziness and love were always interfering with his work. As a result of extravagance he was usually in debt, and not always careful to get out honestly. Yet the people of his time were kind-hearted enough to overlook boyish faults in an artist who brought so much renown to their country.
Filippo was born into a Florentine butcher’s family about 1402, and his father died soon afterward. He seems to have had little care from his mother, who may, however, have died during his infancy. An aunt took care of him; but, finding the boy too great a burden for her slender means, turned him over to be educated by the Carmelite friars. The abbot was lenient; for he had the wisdom to see that a boy who drew pictures all over the walls and on his books when he should have been studying would probably become an artist. Artists were highly thought of in those days, when the church taught by means of pictures. Filippo, therefore, never learned to write good Latin. He studied the frescos of the chapel instead. Later, when he had finished his studies and gained a name for himself among painters, the abbot granted him permission to leave the monastery in order to give his genius full scope. Monks who had learned to paint were often allowed this privilege.
So Fra Filippo became a great painter. When he went to Prato and saw Lucrezia Buti he was already nearly fifty years old, while she was hardly more than twenty. She also was an orphan. Her father, who had been a silk merchant in Florence, left his daughters in the care of Antonio Buti: evidently a harsh guardian, for he put Lucrezia and Spinetta, both beautiful girls, into the convent of Santa Margherita against their will, in order to save himself some expense. Filippo saw her, used her as a model, and later married her by permission of the Pope. The virgins and saints of his paintings had a new spiritual radiance after he saw Lucrezia’s face. He used her for all manner of subjects, from the Virgin to the “Dancing Daughter of Herodias,” changing her features to suit as many different characters.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, NO. 28, SERIAL NO. 28
HELENA FOURMENT. By Rubens