Though I still have a few weeks of grading exams to go, summer is definitely here in Rome. To celebrate the end of classes, I took a morning off last week to visit a special exhibit at Rome’s Capitoline Museum. The Capitoline is one of several museums in the Eternal City that would be the top attraction anywhere else but gets overshadowed by the Vatican Museums and the Borghese Gallery. It contains a number of impressive ancient Roman sculptures and a couple of Caravaggios — antiquity and baroque being the two periods Rome is known best for. When it comes to Renaissance art, Rome takes second place to Florence (though, given the work of Michelangelo and Raphael in the Vatican, the competition is still stiff).
In any case, the Capitoline is hosting an exhibit this summer dedicated to the work of Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) and his son Filippino (1457-1504). I mentioned Filippo before for his wonderful frescoes in Spoleto’s cathedral depicting the life of the Virgin. Filippo grew up an orphan and very poor. He was raised in a Carmelite monastery in Florence and became a monk. His superiors noticed his talent and encouraged his artistic career. He proved, in fact, to be a better artist than a monk. While executing a commission in a monastery in Prato, he ran off with a 17-year old novice, Lucrezia Buti, who became the model for some of his most beautiful female figures. Filippino, you might have guessed, was the fruit of their union.
Both artists, to my mind, have a knack for stunning portraiture, managing to capture the humanity of their subjects even when these are somewhat idealized. There’s a bit of Botticelli in both their work, which is not surprising; Filippo taught Botticelli, while Filippino was has apprentice. Of particular note in the exhibit is a Madonna of Humility (Filippo, 1420) surrounded by an amusing crowd of saints and young Carmelites, and a two-panel Annunciation (Filippino, 1483-4), which the photos can’t do justice to. Most of the works on display are on loan from museums in Tuscany.
It was a busy academic year, so I wasn’t able to do too much exploration these past months, but, since summer is here, I’ll share some photos from the excursions I did manage to take over the next few weeks.
A reminder again, if you haven’t done so already, to subscribe for email updates:
Tony Lusvardi, S.J. 