MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - PA032.jpg


Category	Painting
Origin: artist/workshop	Fra Filippo Lippi (1406?-69)
Date	15C/3
Reference No	NG 248
Size	94.3x106
Provenance	Florence, Palazzo Vecchio
Present Location	London, National Gallery
Bibliography	Baker & Henry 1995, 384; Paffrath 1990, 45; Marchini 1975, 207; Kuenstle 1926, 129; Martin 1925, 45; Mannini & Fagioli 1997, 111-2
	Davies 1961, 291-3; Berenson 1963, 111; Janke 1974, 45-50; Berenson 1969, 221; 1990, 55; Aurenhammer 1959-67, 338; Gordon 2003, 134-41
Illustration From	Paffrath 1990, 45; Mannini & Fagioli 1997, 45 (detail, 46); Gordon 2003, 135
Other illustrations	Baker & Henry 1995, 384; Marchini 1975, ill 36; Davies 1953, 233
	Paffrath 1990, 45; Berenson 1963, ill 861; Janke 1974, ill 29; Dal Pra 1990, ill 29
Country	Italy

Description:
Painting in egg (identified) on wood, probably from 1447, of St Bernard's Vision of the Virgin by Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite much patronized by the Medici family. An irregular hexagon, it may be an overdoor placed outside the chapel in Florence, for which a payment in May 1447 is recorded, at the same time as that of an 'Annunciation'. It may illustrate a dialogue between the Virgin and Bernard about Christ's Passion that is meant to form the basis of his 'Liber de Passione Christi et doloribus et planctibus matris ejus'. A youthful Bernard sits at a desk placed in a mountainous landscape. His right hand is following the text of the open book before him but would originally have held a pen, his left hand is raised towards the Virgin on whom he is gazing. The Virgin's hands are extended towards Bernard, indicating the dialogue between them. The Virgin is attended by three angels. Two small men's heads appear in the background (not that of Cistercians as asserted by Baker & Henry 1995). The smaller, fragile figure of the Virgin must be understood as a visionary mode which must have been effective as the audience was already familiar with the contrasting, more rational designs. The Virgin and the angels are certainly an apparition within the picture. The landscape can also be read as belonging to the visionary mode, as the 'desert' type of site of Christian penance, the kind of 'wilderness' settled by the Cistercians. In the bottom corner are traces of what could originally have been a small devil with a tail (see detailed illustration on p 137).

Description:

Painting in egg (identified) on wood, probably from 1447, of St Bernard's Vision of the Virgin by Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite much patronized by the Medici family. An irregular hexagon, it may be an overdoor placed outside the chapel in Florence, for which a payment in May 1447 is recorded, at the same time as that of an 'Annunciation'. It may illustrate a dialogue between the Virgin and Bernard about Christ's Passion that is meant to form the basis of his 'Liber de Passione Christi et doloribus et planctibus matris ejus'. A youthful Bernard sits at a desk placed in a mountainous landscape. His right hand is following the text of the open book before him but would originally have held a pen, his left hand is raised towards the Virgin on whom he is gazing. The Virgin's hands are extended towards Bernard, indicating the dialogue between them. The Virgin is attended by three angels. Two small men's heads appear in the background (not that of Cistercians as asserted by Baker & Henry 1995). The smaller, fragile figure of the Virgin must be understood as a visionary mode which must have been effective as the audience was already familiar with the contrasting, more rational designs. The Virgin and the angels are certainly an apparition within the picture. The landscape can also be read as belonging to the visionary mode, as the 'desert' type of site of Christian penance, the kind of 'wilderness' settled by the Cistercians. In the bottom corner are traces of what could originally have been a small devil with a tail (see detailed illustration on p 137).