MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - PA191.jpg


Category	Painting
Origin: artist/workshop	Fra Filippo Lippi (1406?-1469)
Date	15C/3
Reference No	Inv GG 69
Size	129.5x118.5
Provenance	Florence, chapel of Medici Palace
Present Location	Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemaeldegalerie
Bibliography	Eisler 1996, 190; Mannini & Fagioli 1997, 127
	Berlin 1986, 44; Holmes 1999, 178-180
Illustration From	Eisler 1996, 191
Other illustrations	Berlin 1986, ill 1083; Mannini & Fagioli 1997, 74; Holmes 1999, ill 178

Country	Italy

Description:
Fra Filippo Lippi painted this altarpiece - sometimes described as his best-loved and called the Adoration in the Forest - in 1459 for the ornately decorated chapel within the Medici Palace. Mary kneels adoring her naked Child as the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove look down. The Infant's finger on his lips may indicate future suffering. The scene is a grove in the heart of the forest. On the left the young standing John the Baptist, patron of Florence, and the kneeling bearded Bernard look on. Lippi's name is inscribed on an axe FRATER PHILIPPUS P[inxit]. The imagery of the axe and felled trees are associated with the Baptist who when preaching in the desert had described the 'axe...laid unto the root of the trees' so that 'every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down' (Luke 3:9), and Bernard invoked the metaphor of cutting into the rocks and earth to describe the contemplative state.

Description:

Fra Filippo Lippi painted this altarpiece - sometimes described as his best-loved and called the Adoration in the Forest - in 1459 for the ornately decorated chapel within the Medici Palace. Mary kneels adoring her naked Child as the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove look down. The Infant's finger on his lips may indicate future suffering. The scene is a grove in the heart of the forest. On the left the young standing John the Baptist, patron of Florence, and the kneeling bearded Bernard look on. Lippi's name is inscribed on an axe FRATER PHILIPPUS P[inxit]. The imagery of the axe and felled trees are associated with the Baptist who when preaching in the desert had described the 'axe...laid unto the root of the trees' so that 'every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down' (Luke 3:9), and Bernard invoked the metaphor of cutting into the rocks and earth to describe the contemplative state.