Cleveland Museum of Art

Pair of Panels from a Triptych: The Archangel Michael and St. Anthony Abbot

Fra Filippo Lippi

Date

1458

Medium

tempera on wood panel

Culture

Italy, Florence, 15th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

These panels depicting Saints Anthony the Abbot and Michael originally flanked a central scene of the Madonna and Child with Angels, now lost, to form a triptych. Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici of Florence commissioned the ensemble in 1457 as a diplomatic gift to Alfonso V of Aragon. Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite friar and one of the great masters of early Renaissance Florence, depicted realistic, weighty figures in a three-dimensional space using a system of linear perspective, inspired partly by Masaccio’s Brancacci Chapel, and reflected in the background architecture. Saint Anthony the Abbot rejected all earthly possessions in pursuit of a contemplative life in the desert. He is generally regarded as the founder of monasticism and is depicted wearing a monk’s habit. Saint Michael’s sword, shield, and exquisitely bejeweled armor celebrate his role as heaven’s defender against evil. Saint Michael's opulent appearance reflects the wealth and status of both the patron and the recipient of these paintings.

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