The Adoration of the Christ Child/Adoration in the Forest

Florence

City considered the heart of the 15th century Italian Renaissance, and home to artist and patron of this painting.

A quote attributed to Cosimo that suggests both his religious nature and his deepest fears.

"I will never have enough money to have God as my debtor"

Lucrezia Buti

A major scandal that might have ended the career of any other friar and very possibly resulted in a death sentence, took place when Lippi asked the Reverend Mother of the Prato Nunnery if a certain lovely young novice of the Order could sit for him as a model. When the Reverend Mother agreed the two absconded. Lippi would eventually father two children by this woman. Only Cosimo's money and influence saved the artist from this scandal.

The Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

After being housed in several different galleries around a divided Berlin, it now occupies a room designed especially for it at what museum?

The 5 wounds Jesus Christ would sustain during crucifixion

All around the infant Christ Child are five-petal flowers representing what?

Usury/Money lending

Among his many sins/crimes, Cosimo de Medici was most concerned about the fate of his mortal soul due to what business practice?

awe-inspiring, trial

And finally, the setting shows a duality of Christian views of nature in general. It is a testament to the grandness of God's creation that is at once beautiful and _____________________, while at the same time forbidding in that it presents a challenge or __________________ to the faithful.

Masaccio

As a young man, the artist witnessed first hand the work of a master when the convent was decorated with religious iconography by what early Renaissance artist? It was even said that the spirit of this man entered the body of Lippi and his earliest works clearly echo this artist's style. (Inset is the master's "Tribute Money")

The Prussian governemnt

Eventually, personal financial difficulties forced Solly to sell the bulk of his art to what entity?

Gold leaf used as rays of divine sunshine tie the three figure of the Trinity together.

Few "nativity" works include the entire holy trinity, and none prior to Lippi's. What feature ties the three members of the Trinity together?

Cosimo de Medici Latin byname Pater Patriae (Father of his Country)

He was the city's (Florence) most wealthy and powerful man, and was the patron who commissioned and collaborated on the painting's design. Through his patronage of the arts he hoped to make his wealth "religiously respectable."

In April 1945 American troops found the art treasures. And soon the American authorities made a stunning decision. The art, they said, should be treated as reparations and taken to the U.S. on the basis of a so-called trusteeship. The Monuments Men were now told to ready it to be shipped out. In an unprecedented turn of events they refused. It is 'the only known case in the whole of the Second World War of American officers refusing an order.' Anne Webber, (Commission for Looted Art in Europe): 'The Nazis had committed the greatest art thefts in history, seized hundreds of thousands of works of art and they were to be prosecuted at Nuremberg..the Monuments Men said there was no distinction in their minds between what the Germans had done in 'safeguarding art' and what the Americans were doing on the same pretext.' Eventually though, amidst threats of courts martial the Monuments Men gave way and 202 of the very finest artworks, Lippi's Adoration among them, were picked out and prepared for shipping to Washington. It would eventually be returned to Germany in 1949.

How was Lippi's Adoration embroiled in a "mutiny?"

"Behold the Lamb of God"

In Latin, John is holding a scroll which reads:

A meat cleaver embedded in the back of his head, the object and his expression suggesting that his profession and temperament were not well suited.

In a early work by the artist of Adoration, done for Cosimo de Medici, the artist shows himself as a young contrarian with what object oddly placed in relation to his self portrait?

John the Baptist, shown at about the age he left home--seven years, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the Cistercian Order of monks whose practice included an intense devotion to Mary, and who believed in solitary meditation.

In most "nativity" works, Joseph, the Wise Men, shepherds and other biblical standards populate the painting, but Lippi omitted many of these standard characters and instead placed what two Saints on the painting's left side?

Cosimo de Medici had Lippi locked in a tower.

It was said of Lippi that he loved life, and this love of life actually led to what extreme measures by his employer to insure that the artist would finish a painting?

Adoration

This style of painting, where Mary and the other figures gaze in awe at the newborn Christ child is referred to as an ________________________, and is considered part of the Christmas cycle of religious paintings.

Florence Cathedral Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Italian name) Il Duomo or Il Duomo di Firenze (Common local name)

The Florence skyline was/is dominated by what structure--also a product of the Renaissance. It's dome was a major achievement in engineering for the time.

The Gold finch feeds on seeds from the type of thorn bush used to make the crown of thorns placed on the head of the Christ by his tormentors.

The Gold finch represents what?

Gold leaf for the halos around the Christ Child and Mary, as well as the divine sun rays that tie the Trinity together.

The dark setting helps what feature "pop" from the imagery and reflect light in interesting ways depending on the angle of viewing?

Assassin's Creed

The painting even appears in this popular video game series where it conceals a hidden lever that opens secret doors on either side of its place in the Medici palace.

Wild flowers with 5 petals and the Gold finch

The painting includes some foreboding images as well. What two elements foretell the Christ Child's future?

Tempera

The painting was produced in what medium?

The setting is a dark, mountainous, forest giving the painting a mysterious, somewhat Gothic feeling.

There had been countless "nativity" paintings done by many artists before and after this one. Most are set in a manger or stable as in the scriptures, or in an idyllic pastoral landscape. What was unusual about the setting Lippi chose for his version.

Fra Filipo Lippi

This artist was a Carmelite friar, raised in a convent as an orphan, so his profession was chosen for him, rather than having made the conscious choice to serve God. This may explain his tendency to stray into sin with infamous results.

The artist's signature.

Unusual for paintings of this period, what did Lippi add to the axe handle shown in foreshortening to the lower left of the painting.

Edward Solly

Upon the triumphant return to power of the Medici, the painting was returned to the family and lived a quiet life for three centuries. Eventually, the painting ended up on the market due to the heavy taxation of wealthy families by Napoleon I and was purchased by this man for a few pounds--becoming a part of the largest private collection of Western art, especially Renaissance art, in the world.

Filippo Brunelleschi

What architect completed the dome of Il Duomo?

Powdered pigments are added to egg yolk and then quickly applied before drying.

What is tempera?

"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." KJV Matthew 3:10 "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." KJV Matthew 7:17-19

What scriptural references tie the the setting of the painting to the spiritual concerns of its patron?

Shylock

What troubled Shakespearean character is another famous money lender in search of justice, and then mercy?

The Medici family were patrons of a monastery founded in the 11th century of the Carmelite Order, which made their money in the mountains east of Florence as harvesters of timber. So the Medici family would immediately recognize the setting.

What was the connection of the setting to the painting's patron?

A government chapel

When the Medici were overthrown, the painting became the alter piece where?

As the alter piece in the chapel within Cosimo de Medici's Florence home.

Where was the painting intended to be displayed?

Robert Browning

With the Romantic movement in art and literature, Lippi's works and personal story became very popular again. There was even something of a "Lippi Cult" among young artists and men of letters. What poet published an imaginary monologue in which a drunken Lippi tottered through the backstreets of Florence proclaiming his libertarian creed : "You should not take a fellow eight years old, And make him swear to never kiss the girls. I'm my own master."

Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (A.K.A. The Monuments Men)

With the annexation of Prussia into a Greater Germany, the painting found its way to Berlin where its fame grew. With the rise of the Nazis, war, the bombing of Berlin and the approaching allied armies, Hitler ordered all the art of Germany, and that which he had stolen from across Europe, hidden. What special unit of the U.S. armed forces was tasked with locating and cataloguing all the hidden art? (Inset shows Eisenhower viewing a discovered art cache, 1945)