Filippo Lippi's Workshop in the 1440s

Work on the Coronation of the Virgin spanned more than eight years: it was commissioned in 1439, and installed in 1447, but the final payment for the predella was not made until 1458. During this time Lippi had numerous other commissions in hand, and his workshop must have been among the busiest in Florence—although in August 1439 he wrote to Piero de'Medici, "with tears in my eyes" ("cholle lagrime alli ochi"), pleading desperate poverty ("uno de' più poveri frati che sia in firenze sono Io"). To mention only the most conspicuous paintings that have either survived or of which we have notice, there was the Annunciation (fig. 13) for a chapel in San Lorenzo; two altarpieces for Le Murate (only one survives: fig. 5); two more altarpieces for the church of Sant'Egidio (one is certainly documented to 1443–45 and is just possibly the Annunciation in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome);43 the altarpiece for the novitiate chapel in Santa Croce (see fig. 4); the Coronation of the Virgin (fig. 18) for San Bernardo, Arezzo; and an Annunciation for an unknown destination (Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome).44 Then there were the devotional panels, the finest of which is the Madonna and Child in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Nowhere else could a curious artist have received such a varied and rich training. Certainly, Fra Carnevale's own, later work testifies to an experience based on the full scope of Lippi's endeavors. Two other personalities present in this exhibition—the Master of the Castello Nativity and the Pratovecchio Master—seem also to have been employed in the workshop during this time. Fortunately for us, the Coronation of the Virgin is among the best documented of all of Lippi's paintings and it therefore offers a glimpse into the workings of this remarkable studio and the various opportunities it offered.45

Construction of the altarpiece was entrusted to Manno de'Cori—a skilled woodworker who had produced choir stalls for Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, and Santa Trinità—and to Domenico di Domenico, called "del Brilla." Manno worked on a model for the dome of the cathedral and Brilla was employed by Brunelleschi on the lantern for the dome.46 Brilla's work with Brunelleschi assumes considerable interest when we notice that Lippi has taken a number of cues from the cathedral lantern for the extravagantly articulated throne of God the Father: the idea of buttress-like arms with openings (fig. 16). Gilding was subcontracted to two artisans, Bernaba di Giovanni and Stefano di Francesco, who shared a workshop near the church of San Pier Maggiore; Bernaba also painted a curtain to hang in front of the altarpiece.47

Much has been made about the identification of the Piero di Lorenzo first cited in a payment received in November 1441: He has sometimes been associated with Piero di Lorenzo di Pratese, who in 1453 formed a partnership (compagnia) with the outstanding Florentine painter Pesellino. More importantly for our purposes, the hypothesis has been advanced that this artist is none other than the anonymous Master of the Castello Nativity, who seems not only to have been a member of Lippi's shop during these years but even, on occasion, to have worked to his designs (see cat. 7, 8).48 The problem is that in 1447 a Piero dipintore—possibly but not certainly the same Piero di Lorenzo—is specified as having gilded the piers of the frame of the Coronation of the Virgin. Annamaria Bernacchioni has pointed out that since this Piero is listed as in the San Pier Maggiore district, he was basically an artisan, and may well have been a partner of Bernaba di Giovanni and Stefano di Francesco; he cannot be Piero di Lorenzo di Pratese, whose shop was in the Corso degli Adimari.49 Thus, we are left with a question surrounding the identity of the anonymous master Berenson once characterized as "an artist who never disappoints us."50

We have already seen that in 1443 Giovanni Boccati (listed as Giovanni di Matteo da Camerino) was among Lippi's assistants: His name appears only once and the nature of his association must remain a matter of speculation. Until recently, it was supposed that before coming to Florence he worked in Perugia, where he had occasion to study a (now destroyed) fresco cycle by Domenico Veneziano in the Baglioni palace.51 New evidence suggests that he and Giovanni Angelo da Camerino went directly to Florence and that it was there that they evolved their highly original styles, based in equal measure on those of Lippi and Domenico Veneziano.52 What emerges with great clarity is the reason the altarpiece Boccati painted in Perugia in 1446–47 (see fig. 17) was patterned so conspicuously on Lippi's Coronation of the Virgin.

The artist who was to be Lippi's most faithful assistant, Fra Diamante, is first documented in 1447, when he is listed as a discepolo di fra filipo.53 He was only seventeen, but his broad-faced, round-nosed figures soon begin appearing in Lippi's work, and he may have assisted in some minor capacity in the painting of the Coronation of the Virgin. A series of individuals are also named about whom we know nothing. One assistant is cited simply as lo Spagnuolo—the Spaniard—in 1445, when Lippi purchased articles of clothing for him. Others mentioned in connection with payments are not specifically identified as painters or apprentices but may have been both: Domenico di Francesco (Domenico di Michelino?),54 Giovanni, Andreino, Piero di Benedetto,55 and Benedetto, who repeatedly collected payments in 1442.

It should be remembered that the two ledgers we possess—one belonging to the monastery and the other to the banker Giovanni di Stagio Barducci, with whom funds had been deposited for the purpose of financing work (Giovanni's sister was a Benedictine nun)—do not record everyone employed on the altarpiece: They list those to whom payments were made. Lippi may well have paid other assistants directly. From other documents we actually know of one apprentice active in his workshop between 1440 and 1442 named Giovanni di Francesco; through the research of Annamaria Bernacchioni, we can now say that this artist is almost certainly Giovanni di Francesco da Rovezzano, the author of a group of distinguished paintings dating from the 1450s that show affinities with the work of Andrea del Castagno and Alesso Baldovinetti.56

Giovanni di Francesco joined Lippi's shop in June 1440: The agreement between the two artists specifies that Giovanni would live with Lippi and remain under contract to do whatever tasks were assigned to him, "like a good disciple" ("a uso di buono di[s]cepolo"), but for which he was to be paid. For his part, Lippi agreed to instruct him in all that he knew about painting ("[Fra Filippo] sia tenuto a insegnialli e a mostralli di quello sapessi circha all'arte della dipintura"). Two years later, Giovanni joined the painters' guild as an independent master; in September 1442, the two artists decided to form a partnership, or compagnia—under which artists shared profits from various tasks (the normal term for such associations was two or three years). This arrangement was short-lived: On November 16 the partnership was dissolved. As compensation Giovanni was to receive remuneration for restoring a work by Giotto that had been consigned to Lippi—a reminder that Lippi, like so many artists, took on tasks other than formal commissions for altarpieces or fresco cycles. Lippi did not meet his end of the bargain and the matter eventually went to court.57 Is this artist the "Giovanni" cited in the Sant'Ambrogio ledgers in 1440?58 It has been suggested (and denied) that Giovanni di Francesco was the assistant responsible for painting the predella of Lippi's San Lorenzo Annunciation (see cat. 15). The matter is of interest because Fra Carnevale has also been credited with this work, although it would seem to have been completed before he joined Lippi's shop (no documents are specifically associated with the altarpiece but its style dates it to about 1440).59

A somewhat different case concerns Pesellino (1422–1457). No document associates him with Lippi's workshop, yet he is unquestionably the author of the predella of the altarpiece painted for the novitiate chapel in Santa Croce (see fig. 20).60 Moreover, it is clear that about 1450 he fell under the spell of Lippi's work. He was an established artist at the time and the heir to one of the largest workshops in the Corso degli Adimari,61 and thus it seems likely that he was subcontracted by Lippi to paint the predella for the novitiate chapel altarpiece. Their relationship—personal as well as artistic—apparently was recognized when, in 1458, Lippi was hired to complete the great altarpiece of the Trinity (fig. 19) that Pesellino had left unfinished at his premature death. Pesellino is the paradigm of an artist who refashioned himself under Lippi's tutelage to become one of the most original painters in mid-century Florence. Like Boccati and Fra Carnevale, he already had apprenticed with his grandfather and had worked with another artist, the Angelico-trained painter and miniaturist Zanobi Strozzi (1412–1468).62 This prior experience gave Pesellino the critical distance necessary to work his way back through Lippi's output of the 1440s and to create the foundations for his own style (see cat. 21). It is in his work that the distinction between an associate of Lippi and someone deeply influenced by his art breaks down.