San Marino · 550th anniversary of the death of Filippo Lippi

Filippo Lippi, usually known as Fra Filippo Lippi, was a painter of the Italian Early Renaissance. He was born in Florence around 1406 and entered the Carmelite Order as a young man. At the Florentine monastery of Santa Maria del Carmine, he encountered Masaccio’s frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. Their spatial effect and realistic figures influenced his painting. Lippi later worked, among others, for the Medici family and received ecclesiastical commissions in Florence, Prato and Spoleto.

Among his most extensive works are the frescoes in the choir of the Cathedral of Prato with scenes from the life of John the Baptist (Johannes der Täufer) and Saint Stephen (der heilige Stephanus). In the final years of his life, Lippi worked on a fresco cycle in the Cathedral of Spoleto. He died there; the works were subsequently completed by his workshop. His son Filippino Lippi also became a painter and carried elements of his father’s art into the following generation of artists.

The painting selected for the coin was probably created around the mid-1460s and is now housed in the Uffizi in Florence. It is executed in tempera on wood. Mary is seated in front of an open window, beyond which an expansive landscape stretches. Two angels lift the Child towards her; one of them looks out of the painting towards the viewer. The combination of a religious devotional image with lifelike facial features, spatial depth and narrative details is characteristic of Lippi’s style.

No direct biographical connection between the painter and San Marino is apparent. The choice is instead explained by the calendar anniversary and by Lippi’s position within the art of the Italian Renaissance. San Marino also regularly uses its commemorative coins to recall artists and works that are considered part of the shared Italian and European cultural heritage.