![Fra Filippo Lippi - The Adoration in the Forest - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Fra_Filippo_Lippi_-_The_Adoration_in_the_Forest_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
The ''Mystical Nativity'' or ''Adoration in the Forest'' was painted by Fra
Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 – 1469) around 1459 as the
altarpiece for the
Magi Chapel
The Magi Chapel is a chapel in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi of Florence, Italy. Its walls are almost entirely covered by a famous cycle of frescoes by the Renaissance master Benozzo Gozzoli, painted around 1459 for the Medici family, the effective ...
in the new
Palazzo Medici in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. It is now in the
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie (, ''Painting Gallery'') is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in ...
, with a copy by another artist now hanging in the chapel. It is a highly individual depiction of the familiar scene of the
Nativity of Jesus in art
The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century.
The artistic depictions of the ''Nativity'' or birth of Jesus, celebrated at Christmas, are based on the narratives in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew a ...
, placed in a mountainous forest setting, with debris from woodcutting all around, rather than the familiar stable in
Bethlehem
Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
, and with the usual figures and animals around the mother and child replaced by others.
The painting is in oil on a
poplar panel, and the painted surface measures 127 x 116 cm, with the panel being 129.5 x 118.5 cm. It is not to be confused with ''
The Mystical Nativity
''The Mystical Nativity'' is a painting in oil on canvas dated by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery in London. It is his only signed work and has an unusual iconography for a painting of the Nativity.
T ...
'' by
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...
, now in London.
Description
The moment shown is known as the ''Adoration of the Child'' in art, as the almost naked baby Jesus is placed on the ground, and "adored" by his mother
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
. The lower part of his body is covered by a
gauzy and transparent cloth. They are on a patch of ground with grass, several types of flower in bloom, but also some of the debris of forestry that appears throughout the forest background. To the left, the infant
John the Baptist
John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
stands, wearing his attribute of a camelskin coat under a red robe. He carries a small cross on a long staff, and holds a
banderole
A banderole (, "little banner") is a comparatively small but long flag, historically used by knights and on ships, and as a heraldic device for representing bishops.
Bannerol, in its main uses is the same as banderole, and is the term especiall ...
inscribed ''Ecce Agnus Dei'' ("Behold the
Lamb of God"). However, he is shown as perhaps five or six years old, a much bigger age difference with the newborn Jesus than the church taught.
Above John the Baptist is the praying figure of Saint
Romuald (c.951 – c. 1025/27), founder of the
Camaldolese order of monks, to which the
Medici family, the patrons of the painting had connections. At the top of the painting, slightly off-centre, are the two other persons of the Christian
Holy Trinity,
God the Father and the
Holy Spirit, represented as a dove. All these figures form a near-continuous rough circle, slightly off-centre to the left. John's figure almost reaches the left edge of the painted surface, but on the right of the composition there is a generous slice of background, interrupted only by Mary's robe. It is not uncommon to have saints and persons not mentioned in the biblical accounts in Nativity scenes, but in addition to the normal elements. In contrast, as
Hartt Hartt is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Cecil Hartt (1884–1930), Australian cartoonist
* Charles Frederick Hartt (1840–1878), Canadian-American geologist, paleontologist and naturalist
* Dale Hartt (born 1979), American m ...
puts it, here there is "no cave, no shed, no Joseph, no angels, no ox, no ass".
The scene is set on a steep slope in a rather dark forest, mostly consisting of pine trees, which runs right to the top of the composition, so that no sky can be seen. Stumps, discarded pieces of tree and other evidence of woodcutting is all around, and Lippi has signed his name ("FRATER PHILIPPUS P
nxit – "Brother Phillip painted this") along the handle of an axe struck into a stump in the bottom left-hand corner. A small, evidently fast-running, stream runs down the right-hand side of the painting, crossed by a crude bridge of planks. On the other side of this, near the top of the painting there is a small hut-like building. On the near side of the stream a crane or heron preens itself. A small
goldfinch is perched on a stump at the front of the picture-space, near Jesus's foot; a common symbol in art for the
Passion of Christ
In Christianity, the Passion (from the Latin verb ''patior, passus sum''; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.) is the short final period in the life of Jesus Christ.
Depending on one's views, the "Passion" m ...
in the future.
Context
![Panorama del Convento di Camaldoli](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Panorama_del_Convento_di_Camaldoli.jpg)
Having a "portable altar", and so a private chapel, in a family city house was at this time a rather rare privilege; the Medici's right to do so had been granted in a
papal bull of
Pope Martin V in 1422. Only nine Florentine families were given the right in this period, and most of the identifiable altarpieces for such chapels featured several saints associated with the family, often the namesakes of members.
By 1563 the lack of the normal elements of a Nativity scene would be partly redressed by the completion of the famous
frescos of the ''Procession of the Magi'' by
Benozzo Gozzoli
Benozzo Gozzoli (4 October 1497) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. A pupil of Fra Angelico, Gozzoli is best known for a series of murals in the Magi Chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, depicting festive, vibrant processions ...
that cover most of the other walls of the
Magi Chapel
The Magi Chapel is a chapel in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi of Florence, Italy. Its walls are almost entirely covered by a famous cycle of frescoes by the Renaissance master Benozzo Gozzoli, painted around 1459 for the Medici family, the effective ...
, and give it its name. These show the large and lively processions of the three
Biblical Magi and their crowded trains making their way to Bethlehem, and include a number of portraits of the Medici family.
Romuald was the founder of the Camoldolite order, named after their remote base at
Camaldoli in the
Apennines. The Medici, in particular
Lucrezia Tornabuoni
Lucrezia Tornabuoni (22 June 1427 – 25 March 1482) was an influential Italian political adviser and author during the 15th century. She was a member of one of the most powerful Italian families of the time and married Piero di Cosimo de' Medic ...
Medici, wife of the head of the family
Piero de' Medici, were supporters of the order, and in the 1560s financed extensive rebuilding at Camaldoli, including cells reserved for their use when they visited. It is agreed that the forest in the painting represents the thick pine forests on the steep slopes around the monastery.
Woodcutting was a part of daily life for the community there, and timber for Florentine builders a major source of income. Many of the monks lived as
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
s in small huts in forest clearings where they grew crops on their own plots. The cut down trees also refer to the words of John the Baptist, given in the Gospel of
Matthew 3:10:
:And now also the axe is laid
:unto the root of the trees:
:therefore every tree which
:bringeth not forth good fruit is
:hewn down, and cast into the fire. (
Authorized Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of ...
)
Because of this passage, an axe was an attribute of John the Baptist in art, though by this period it was rare in Western art. It may also have had other specific and personal meanings for Lippi, arising from the traditions of his own
Carmelite order.
John the Baptist was the
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of Florence and of the Camaldoli monastery. Lucrezia Tornabuoni Medici had a particular devotion to him, demonstrated by her poetry. There has been much discussion as to who influenced the unusual features of the painting, apart from Lippi himself. Although there is surviving correspondence showing that Piero de' Medici took a considerable interest in the Gozzoli frescos, making his wishes prevail, there is nothing comparable for the altarpiece, and it has been argued that his wife Lucrezia was more significant for that.
Another candidate is the
Archbishop of Florence
The Archdiocese of Florence ( la, Archidioecesis Florentina) is a metropolitan see of the Catholic Church in Italy. until his death in 1459, Saint
Antoninus of Florence
Antoninus of Florence (1 March 13892 May 1459), was an Italian Dominican friar, who ruled as an archbishop of Florence. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Life
He was born Antonio Pierozzi (also called de Forciglioni) on 1 Mar ...
, who knew the Medici well. The distinctive elements of the painting were quickly repeated by Lippi in a different composition of about 1463, known as the "Camaldoli Nativity". This was painted for Lucrezia Tornabuoni Medici's "cell" (one of the small single-story houses with its own plot) in the Camaldoli monastery, the treatment no doubt specified by her; it is now in the
Uffizi Gallery
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
in Florence.
Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
says that both paintings were commissions of Lucrezia.
File:Altar wall, Chapel of the Magi, Florence..jpg, The copy in the Magi Chapel
The Magi Chapel is a chapel in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi of Florence, Italy. Its walls are almost entirely covered by a famous cycle of frescoes by the Renaissance master Benozzo Gozzoli, painted around 1459 for the Medici family, the effective ...
of the Palazzo Medici, flanked by parts of Gozzoli's frescos
File:Filippo lippi, adorazione del bambino coi ss. giuseppe, girolamo, ilarione e maria maddalena, 1455 ca. 01.jpg, The ''Annalena Nativity'' by Lippi, c. 1455, Uffizi Gallery
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
File:Fra Filippo Lippi - St John Taking Leave of his Parents (detail) - WGA13283.jpg, Lippi and workshop, fresco in Prato Cathedral
Prato Cathedral, or Cathedral of Saint Stephen, ( it, Duomo di Prato; Cattedrale di San Stefano) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prato, Tuscany, Central Italy, from 1954 the seat of the Bishop of Prato, having been previously, from 1653, a cat ...
, ''John the Baptist Bids Farewell to his Family''
History
The painting was created at the height of the power of the
Medici family; Piero was dead within a few years, and the power of their many enemies grew until the main family members were expelled from Florence in 1494. Their goods were confiscated, and the Lippi was for several years hung as the altarpiece in the chapel of the
Palazzo Vecchio, headquarters of the republic. When the Medici returned in 1512 they reclaimed it and it returned to their palace, where it remained for the next three centuries. Although not on public display, the painting was very well-known and much copied.
The Englishman
Edward Solly, whose large fortune came appropriately from trading timber, bought the painting in 1814, during the upheavals of the Napoleonic wars, and it was acquired for the Berlin collection in 1821, as part of a large sale of his collection. It became famous and popular with the public on display in Berlin over the next century, and in 1940 was moved with other important works to safe storage in a Berlin bunker. In 1945 this was not felt safe enough, and with thousands of other artworks and other valuables it was moved to a
potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosph ...
mine.
The US Army took the mine in the same year. At the end of the war the Americans intended, like the Russians, to permanently seize artworks owned by the German government, and over strong protests from the "
Monuments Men
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
", the Lippi was one of 202 artworks shipped to the US. On arrival they were hung in the basement of the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, but the collection was not opened to the public, as the seizure had become controversial, with criticism in the press and Congress. Eventually the paintings were displayed as a temporary exhibition in the National Gallery, which toured to twelve cities in 1948–49; they were then sent back to Germany. The touring exhibition was a huge success, seen by over ten million people. After returning to
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
, the painting had a number of homes in the
Berlin State Museums
The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...
before the new building of the
Gemäldegalerie at the
Kulturforum
The Kulturforum ( en, Cultural Forum) is a collection of cultural buildings in Berlin. It was built up in the 1950s and 1960s at the edge of West Berlin, after most of the once unified city's cultural assets had been lost behind the Berlin Wal ...
was opened in 1998.
[Private, 44:50]
See also
*''
The Mystical Nativity
''The Mystical Nativity'' is a painting in oil on canvas dated by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery in London. It is his only signed work and has an unusual iconography for a painting of the Nativity.
T ...
'' by
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...
, 1500–01
Notes
References
*"Berlin": ''The Complete Catalogue of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin'', 1986, Harry N. Abrams,
*
Hartt, Frederick, ''History of Italian Renaissance Art'', (2nd edn.) 1987, Thames & Hudson (US Harry N Abrams),
*Holmes, Megan, ''Fra Filippo Lippi the Carmelite Painter'', 1999, Yale University Press, , 9780300081046
google books*"Private",
''The Private Life of a Christmas Masterpiece'' (2010), Fulmar Television & Film tv programme for the BBC, with
Luke Syson
Luke Syson is an English museum curator and art historian. Since 2019, he has been the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, prior to which he held positions at the British Museum (1991–2002), the Victoria and Albe ...
,
Sarah Dunant,
Rachel Campbell-Johnston and others
45 minutes
*
Schiller, Gertud, ''Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I'', 1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London,
*Solum, Stefanie, ''Women, Patronage, and Salvation in Renaissance Florence: Lucrezia Tornabuoni and the Chapel of the Medici Palace'', 2017, Routledge, , 9781351536493
google books*
Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
, selected & ed. George Bull, ''Artists of the Renaissance'', Penguin 1965 (page nos from BCA edn, 1979)
*Verdon, Timothy, Rossi, Filippo, ''Mary in Western Art'', 2005, Hudson Hills, , 9780971298194
google books
{{Filippo Lippi
1450s paintings
Paintings by Filippo Lippi
Nativity of Jesus in art
Altarpieces
Paintings in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Birds in art
Paintings depicting John the Baptist
Paintings depicting the Holy Trinity