Lippi, FRA FILIPPO, commonly known as LIPPO LIPPI, a Florentine painter, was born in 1412; but, losing his parents whilst still an infant, he was entrusted to the Carmelite friars of Florence when only eight years of age. In the story of his life as told by Vasari there are several romantic incidents; but most of them are now discredited, except that he abducted Lucrezia Buti, a ward or novice of the convent of St Margaret at Prato, and afterwards married her. Lippo Lippi, who studied principally Masaccio, painted religious subjects, which he conceived and designed from a human standpoint. His greatest work was done on the choir walls of the cathedral of Prato—illustrations of the lives of John the Baptist and St Stephen. He was busy executing a series of incidents from the life of the Virgin in the cathedral apse at Spoleto, when death arrested his hand for ever, about 8th October 1469. Besides these works he painted several Madonnas and altarpieces, amongst these last one for the nunnery chapel of S. Ambrogio, Florence, the subject of Browning's poem. Lippo Lippi had a staunch patron in Cosimo de' Medici. See Crowe in Nineteenth Century, 1896.
His son, FILIPPINO LIPPI, was born at Florence in 1460, and educated at Prato. His artistic style has a strong element of originality, but also shows the influence of his father and Botticelli. His most celebrated frescoes are scenes from the lives of St Peter and St Paul in the Brancacci chapel at
Florence (cf. MASACCIO), incidents illustrating the character of St Thomas Aquinas in the Minerva church at Rome, and subjects from the legends of St John and St Philip in Sta Maria Novella at Florence. His best easel-pictures include 'The Virgin and Saints' (in the Uffizi at Florence), 'The Adoration of the Magi,' 'The Vision of St Francis.' Filippino died in April 1504 at Florence.