Adoration of the Magi (Filippino Lippi)

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Adoration of the Magi (Filipino Lippi)
Adoration of the Magi
Filipino Lippi , 1496
258 × 243 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi , Florence

The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by Filippino Lippi for the high altar of San Donato a Scopeto from 1496. It now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence .

Provenance

Client: Order of monks of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto

Since 1420 the reform order of the Augustinians, the Canonici Regolari di Salvatore, called Scopetani, had its seat in the monastery that already existed earlier. The monastery in front of the Roman Gate in Florence was in poor condition, so it was rebuilt by the monks and was equipped. In November SDaS was completely destroyed or demolished at the Assedio di Firenze in 1529. Only the vestibule from around 1000 and the altar panel by Filippino were taken over into the successor monastery of San Jacopo sopr 'Arno.

Filippino Lippi Adoration of the Magi

The adoration of the kings was a follow-up commission from the monastic order of San Donato a Scopeto to Filippino Lippi. With this, the monks had waived complications that were still present in the contract with his predecessor Leonardo. They sold the piece of land in Valdensa that Leonardo was to receive for his work and paid Filippino the resulting 300 Fiorini in cash. On the back of the picture it says: FILIPPINUS ME PINSIT DE LIPPIS FLORENTINUS ADD XXIX DI MARZO MCCCCLXXXXVI. The collaboration of other artists has been proven through a restoration.

Image description

In front of a ruin there is Mary with the Jesus child, directly behind her you can see Joseph on the right, ox and donkey on the left. Around them, in a triangular composition, which is particularly successful thanks to the use of color, other people are depicted, among whom the three holy kings can be seen in the foreground. The affects of those present are very different. While the three holy kings have already recognized God's Son, others are amazed and upset. The child Jesus himself is already facing the second king to the right in his body rotation, but still turns head and foot to the left towards the oldest king.

In the background you can see the entourage of the three holy kings and a city with many towers. On the far left of the picture with astrolarium, Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo (died in 1476) is kneeling, behind him are his sons Lorenzo, Lord of Piombino and Giovanni, ambassador of Caterina Sforza. (“ E vi rictrasse in figura d'uno astrologo che ha in mano un quadrante Pier Francesco Vecchio de Medici, figliuolo di Lorenzo di Bicci, e similmente S (ignior) Giovanni fratello, et altri segnalti personaggi. ”)

The Medici have renounced their claim to power because of Girolamo Savonarola. This is documented in the painting by Giovanni, who has the crown removed. (This is how contemporary political events are depicted in the form of portraits.) Other figures have portrait-like features, but no clear assignment has been made here. Filippino did not make a draft of the overall composition for the Adoration of the Magi, but "The Adoration of the Magi is one of his carefully prepared and executed creations, for which a few study sheets (...) can still be identified." quite in line with his Mannerist style tendency. As he himself stands at the boundary between two ages, so the adoration of the kings, rooted according to its content in the sensory world of the late Quatrocento, as a formal artistic creation belongs far more to the future than to the present. "

Attachment to the Pala

Description of the attachment

The primed board was later given a 14.5 cm wide attachment. It is led to the actual board by four large nails. A channel was laid in the core of the board for the nails. On the back is a 20 cm wide and 3 cm thick strip with many small nails. This bar does not intervene in the substance of the table. The remaining part of the poplar wood panel consists of almost perfectly jointed, longitudinally grained boards. At the back there is a 13 cm thick cross bracing made of fir wood. It is embedded 2.5 cm into the 4 cm thick board and holds the boards in the middle section together. Swallowtails beyond the bracing also serve this purpose. This is a symmetrical style for a table that is common for the Quattrocento. The attachment of the dovetail before the addition is evidence of the later addition.

Reasons for the attachment

There are three possible reasons for expanding the board: the desire to show a cicerotype (which narratively introduces the event as an intercessor) and / or a portrait in a prominent position - the one shown by Leonardo Johannes. The highlighting of the landscape in which the event takes place, or the depiction of the temple fragments - which are understood as overcoming paganism - could have been the occasion.

Comparison between Filippinos and Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi

Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi from the Orient

On the left and in the middle of the panel there are few similarities in the composition to Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi from the Orient , which shows that Filippino did an independent work in this area. Nevertheless, the figure conception is very close to that of Leonardo's, which he must have achieved without direct reference - if the figure composition came from himself.

Similarities or similarities to Leonardo's work

  • Similarities can be found in the figures, the space and the viewer's point of view. "(Both) share a high horizon, slightly raised viewpoint, space receding into the far distance, and a central Figural Group posed before a rock formation in the middle of the landscape."
  • The bearded man behind the young man crouching on a rock on the right and the young man with a conspicuous gesture behind the crouching man are copies of Leonardo, the old man looking at the child and the young man behind him looking up at the sky.
  • The entire right-hand side group (except for the less important people) is similar.
  • The explainer and the person in whom John is accepted are in the same place in both works.
  • The head posture of the kneeling kings is similar, albeit reversed. (However, the attitude is common in Florence at the time.)
  • Filippino aggravates Leonardo's restlessness with disorder. According to Scharf, he diminishes the central role of Mary by depicting people behind her in a heightened manner. As I understand it, this assessment is counteracted by the resulting more central position of Mary in the picture. (Maria wanders further back in the picture, as we know from the picture tradition.)

differences

  • On the right in the picture, Leonardo shows everyone spontaneously looking at the child, while the people on the left either arrive or talk about what they saw. Nevertheless, the groups are in context with one another. The kings can be assigned to the respective side groups as well as the middle group and are thus possibly to be interpreted as a link between Christ and humans.
  • A later point in time can be seen on the Leonardo board than with Filippino: the second king hands over the gift to the child, while with Filippino the moment between the first and second handing over of the king’s present can be seen - i.e. the moment before the censer was delivered. This was considered a reference to the sacrificial death of Christ, which is liturgically repeated during the mass. Here there is a reference to the Eucharist, as is usual for altar panels.

Models for the adoration of the kings

  • High altar painting for San Marco, Fra Angelico , around 1438–40 (structure accentuating the hierarchy)
  • Adoration of the Magi for Gaspare del Lama, Sandro Botticelli , around 1472–75 (in view of the semicircular structure)
  • Portinair altar, Hugo van Goes , erected in Florence around 1478 (with regard to expression)

literature

  • Leon Battista Alberti: About the art of painting. De pictura praestantissima et nunquam satis laudata arte libri tres absolutissimi .
  • Leon Battista Alberti, Oskar Bätschmann: Della pittura . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002.
  • Irene Below : Leonardo da Vinci and Filippino Lippi: Studies on the altar panels for the Bernhardskapelle in Palazzo Vecchio and for the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto , Berlin 1971.
  • Gloria Fossi: The Uffizi Gallery . Official guide. All works, Florence 2009.
  • Ludwig Goldschneider: Leonardo da Vinci. Life and work. Paintings and drawings . London 1960.
  • Giovanni Poggi : Note su Filippino Lippi . In: Rivista d'arte , Florence 1910
  • Adolf Rosenberg: Leonardo da Vinci . With 128 illustrations after paintings and drawings. Leipzig 1898.
  • Alfred Scharf: Filippino Lippi . With 143 illustrations and 4 color plates. Vienna 1950.
  • Michael Rohlmann: Flanders and Italy, Flanders and Florence . In: Victor M. Schmidt: Italy and the Low Countries - artistic the fifteenth century ; proceedings of the symposium held at Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, 14 March 1994 / Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell'Arte. Florence 1994, pp. 39-67.
  • Giorgio Vasari: Le vite de 'più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori: nelle red. del 1550 e 1568 . Giorgio Vasari; Rosanna Bettarini; Paola Barocchi: In: Testo , Vol. 3 [main volume]. Florence 1971.
  • Frank Zöllner: Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519 . Volume I The Complete Paintings . Vienna 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Poggi 1910, p. 94
  2. ↑ Fossi 2009, p. 58
  3. ↑ Vasari 1971, p. 473
  4. ↑ a b Scharf 1950, p. 31, Fig. 6.7
  5. ↑ Below 1971, p. 113
  6. ↑ a b Below 1971, p. 67
  7. ↑ Schmidt 1994, p. 50
  8. ↑ Below 1971, p. 66
  9. ↑ Scharf 1950, p. 31
  10. ↑ Below 1971, p. 71
  11. ↑ Below 1971, p. 72
  12. ↑ Zöllner 2011, p. 58