This triptych, reunited here for the first time since 1935, dates about 1440, when Lippi was the most experimental painter in Italy. Particularly notable is his varied study of light, but no less innovative is his use of gesture and expression—for example, the way Saint Augustine addresses the viewer. The subject of the saints' ongoing debate is the Virgin, shown as the Bride of Christ, seated on the Throne of Wisdom; on the scroll held by an angel is a passage from Ecclesiastes. Saint Jerome was devoted to the Virgin. His habit suggests that the altarpiece was painted for an Augustinian establishment in the environs of Florence. The artist has suggested a continuous, boxlike space, but it is inconsistent in the center panel. This manipulation of space for expressive purposes puts Lippi at odds with Renaissance painters such as Fra Carnevale and Piero della Francesca, who were interested in a measurable space based on mathematics.

cat. no. 1a–c