Filippo Lippi was born on June 23, 1406 in Florence, Italy. His father was Tommaso, a butcher.
When he was still a small child, both his parents died. Lippi was sent to live with his aunt Mona Lapaccia; however, because she was too poor to rear him, she placed him in the neighboring Carmelite convent.
Lippi was eight years old when he left for the Carmelite convent and started his education there.
Lippi was admitted to the community of Carmelite friars of the Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Florence in 1420, taking religious vows in the Order the following year, at the age of sixteen. He was ordained as a priest in approximately 1425, and remained in residence of that priory until 1432. In 1432 Filippo Lippi quit the monastery, although he was not released from his vows. Lippi's work of that period, notably the "Tarquinia Madonna" (Galleria Nazionale, Rome), shows the influence from Masaccio's works.
Lippi then went on to visit Ancona and Naples, where he was captured by Barbary pirates and kept as a slave. His skill in portrait-sketching helped to eventually release him.
With Lippi's return to Florence in 1432, his paintings had become popular, warranting the support of the Medici family, who commissioned The Annunciation and the Seven Saints.
In 1441 Lippi painted an altarpiece for the nuns of S. Ambrogio.
Lippi was appointed chaplain to the nuns at the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Florence in 1452.
In June 1456 Fra Filippo is recorded as living in Prato, near Florence, to paint frescoes in the choir of the cathedral. In 1458, while engaged in this work, he set about painting a picture for the monastery chapel of S. Margherita.
He was appointed commendatory Rector of S. Quirico in Legania in 1457, from which institutions he occasionally made considerable profits. Despite these profits, Lippi struggled to escape poverty throughout his life.
The close of Lippi's life was spent at Spoleto, where he had been commissioned to paint scenes from the life of the Virgin for the apse of the cathedral. Lippi died on 8 October 1469 in Spoleto, Italy, while painting the frescoes in the apse of the Cathedral, a task completed by his pupils.
Esther at the Palace Gate
Figure study
Annunciation
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
Madonna della Cintola
Madonna and Child
St. John Taking Leave of his Parents (detail)
The Annunciation with two Kneeling Donors
Saint Anthony and Archangel Michael
Adoration of the Magi
Man of Sorrows
Saints Augustin and Francis, a Bishop Saint, and Saint Benedict
St. Luke the Evangelist
The Birth and Infancy of St. Stephen
Virgin with the Child and Scenes from the Life of St. Anne
St. Fredianus Diverts the River Serchio
The Birth and Infancy of St. Stephen (detail)
Adoration of the Magi (detail)
Disputation in the Synagogue
Madonna and Child
The Funeral of St. Stephen (detail)
Two Saints
Coronation of the Virgin
Annunciation, left wing
Circumcision
Madonna with the Child and two Angels
The Adoration of the Magi
The Feast of Herod: Salome's Dance (detail)
The Birth and Infancy of St. Stephen (detail)
Annunciation
Female Figure
Adoration of the Magi (detail)
Madonna Enthroned with Saints
The Virgin Appears to St. Bernard
Announcement of the Death of the Virgin
Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement
Vision of St. Augustine
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels
Adoration of the Magi (detail)
Disputation in the Synagogue (detail)
Madonna and Child
Madonna Enthroned
The Feast of Herod: Salome's Dance (detail)
Annunciation
The Adoration of the Infant Jesus
St. Benedict Orders St. Maurus to the Rescue of St. Placidus
Birth and Naming St. John (detail)
Dead Christ Supported by Mary and St. John the Evangelist
Nativity
The Beheading of John the Baptis
Annunciation
St. John Taking Leave of his Parents
Meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate
Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and a Donor
The Vision of St. Augustine
Coronation of the Virgin
The Funeral of St. Stephen (detail)
Seven Saints
Madonna and Child
The Adoration of the Infant Jesus
Madonna of Humility
Madonna of Humility with Angels and Donor
Virgin with the Child and Scenes from the Life of St. Anne (detail)
Triptych
Adoration of the Magi (detail)
Pietà
Coronation of the Virgin (detail)
Ambrose Legend
Head of a Woman
Madonna and Child with St. Fredianus and St. Augustine
The Feast of Herod: Salome's Dance (detail)
Disputation in the Synagogue (detail)
Pietà
Madonna and Child
The Annunciation
St. Alberto of Trapani
Death of the Virgin
Adoration Of The Child With Saints
Madonna and Child with two Angels
Coronation of the Virgin
The Funeral of St. Stephen
Disputation in the Synagogue (detail)
The Martyrdom of St. Stephen
Confirmation of the Carmelite Rule
St. Lawrence Enthroned with Saints and Donors
Annunciation, right wing
Birth and Naming St. John
The Doctors of the Church
Funeral of St. Jerome
Annunciation
St. Jerome in the desert
St. John the Evangelist
Adoration Of The Child With Saints
Madonna del Ceppo
Adoration of the Magi (detail)
Portrait of a Woman
Confirmation of the Carmelite Rule
The Feast of Herod: Salome's Dance
Quotes from others about the person
Giorgio Vasari: "Instead of studying, he spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others."
Filippo Lippi met Lucrezia Buti, a beautiful novice of the Order and the daughter of a Florentine named Francesco Buti. Lippi asked that she might be permitted to sit for the figure of the Madonna (or perhaps S. Margherita). Under that pretext, Lippi engaged in sexual relations with her, abducted her to his own house, and kept her there despite the nuns' efforts to reclaim her. This relationship resulted in their son Filippino Lippi, who became a famous painter following his father, and daughter Alessandra Lippi.
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