5 October 2011 - 15 January 2012

One of the art world's greatest scandals led to one of its greatest rivalries. When Renaissance master and Carmelite friar Filippo Lippi used his influence as confessor at the Augustinian convent of Santa Margherita to seduce one of its nuns, the union saw the illegitimate birth of Filippino Lippi. Taken away to be raised in his father's workshop, it was there that the young Filippo - called 'Filippino' to distinguish him from his father - would meet friend, master, and ultimately rival, Sandro Botticelli, celebrated painter of The Birth of Venus. From his father, Filippino would learn the delicate perfection of chiaroscuro technique and from Botticelli, the art of courting contemporary Italy's most influential patrons to earn him acclaim and some of the most sought-after commissions in Quattrocento Italy.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus c. 1486
Uffizi Gallery, Florence Italy

Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale gracefully walks us through the development of Filippino Lippi's career in context of his father, Botticelli, and influential patrons Oliviero Carafa, Filippo Strozzi and the Medici family. Arguably the most skillfully curated museum in Rome, the Scuderie or "Stables" - a name derived from the building's former function as the horse stables for the adjacent Quirinale palace - reliably delivers a well-managed, impeccably organized exhibition that such big names warrant. Host of last year's epic Caravaggio exhibit - the most comprehensive survey of the artist's life and work ever presented - the Scuderie once again delivered to art-lovers what is essential to gain a true appreciation and understanding of an artist's career.

Entrance to the exhibition and view of the low-gradient spiral staircase that could be mounted on horseback when the Scuderie were used as stables

Fra' Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with Stories from the Life of St. Anne (Tondo Bartolini), 1452-1453
Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

Exquisitely curated by Alessandro Cecchi, the exhibition follows a logical progression that begins with his father's work exemplified by the magnificent Madonna and Child and Stories from the Life of Saint Anne (1452-1453) before moving to Filippino's stint in Botticelli's workshop after their master, Lippi senior's death, and finally to his first independent commissions for Lorenzo the Magnificent Medici on the first floor. Under the guidance of a twenty-page leaflet and/or an outstanding audio guide - in my opinion the only audio guide worth spending the extra money for in Rome - the visitor is led through a roughly fifty year survey of the artist's life in context of the religious and political scene in contemporary Florence. Complete with accompanying sketches, studies, books, legal documents and medals, the multimedia exhibition does an excellent job of providing ample background for the art.

Filippino Lippi, Three Angels and Young Tobias, 1485
Galleria Sabauda, Turin Italy

Sandro Botticelli, Primavera c. 1482
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Italy

Sandro Botticelli, Return of Judith to Bethulia  c. 1470
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Italy

Highlights on the first floor of the exhibition (home to the best pieces in the collection) include Filippino's Three Archangels and Tobias (1477-1478), where Botticelli's influence can be seen in the figures of Archangels Raphael and Gabriel, flanking the biblical protagonist, whose distinct "pregnant" bellies evoke the figures in the latter's Primavera or Return of Judith to Bethulia. Da Vinci's master Verrocchio's influence can also be seen in the landscape and in the rigid posture of Archangel Michael, commander of the heavenly army. Set amongst works like Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man and the delicate Mordecai Lamenting at the Gate of the Royal Palace, one is able to appreciate the development on Filippino's early style as he worked closely, on practically equal footing, to the emerging Renaissance superstar.

Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi 1475-1478
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Italy

The most famous work on display is Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi (1475-1478) on loan from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. While the audio guide did a good job introducing the real-life contemporary characters present in the scene (Cosimo the Elder and his two sons portrayed posthumously as the Magi, the patron Gaspare di Zanobe looking at us from the back right, and Botticelli himself, staring at us haughtily from the front right in a yellow robe), it may have blundered on the identification of Cosimo's two grandchildren, labeling the supercilious youth in the front left in profile as Guiliano de' Medici and the sullen character in the black cloak on the right as his brother, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" de' Medici.

While the identification of these two figures is widely debated, many sources suggest that Lorenzo is, in fact, the proud youth on the left, surrounded by his contemporaries at the Accademia Platonica of Careggi, famous for its teachings averse to Catholic thought, which explains the three figures' air of removed superiority from the scene. Lorenzo's image can also be recognized by its likeness to Botticelli's other work featuring his countenance as the god Mercury, the Primavera. The late Guiliano should be the profiled figure in black on the right, fittingly sullen as the tragic victim of the notorious Pazzi scheme orchestrated by the rival Pazzi family and Pope Sixtus IV against the Medici clan on April 26, 1478. Both the audio guide and the brochure fail to mention the intriguing conspiracy that took the life of Guiliano de' Medici and attempted that of Lorenzo during mass at the Florence Cathedral, which is surprising considering that the historical background is so wonderfully provided throughout the exhibition otherwise.

Lippi Filippino, Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Angels 1481-1482
Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Florence Italy

Parmigianino, Madonna of the Long Neck (1535-1540)
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Italy

For me, the most enjoyable part of the exhibition was to look for inspiration both from and for other Italian Renaissance artists in Filippino's work. Looking at his Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Angels (1481-1482), also known as the Corsini tondo, I immediately recalled Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck (1535-1540) and would venture to say the young artist from Parma, who spent considerable time in Florence, borrowed from Filippino's composition in his placement of the saint in the right background. Filippino, in turn, seems to have borrowed the surreal glacial background from Da Vinci and the composition of three distinct groups as well as the placement of the Madonna and Child under a shell-shaped canopy that evokes a wall altar from Botticelli's arrangement in his Primavera. The translucent veil draped over the Christ child's belly undoubtedly influenced later works by German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder featuring another famous mother-son duo, Venus and Cupid.

Filippino's eye-catching split painting of The Annunciation (1483-1484), spread over two tondos, boasts a different palate from the standard hues of Florence, and in fact was painted during his stint in San Gimignano for the municipality's Town Hall. We even see his work in 3D, beautifully exemplified by the painted wood sculpture of Saint Anthony Abbot, a collaboration with sculptor Benedetto da Maiano. Filippino's slightly awkward Portrait of a Musician (1483-1485) shows a green attempt at three-quarter pose similar to Botticelli's clumsy Portrait of a Man with a Medal (1474), where the artist's attempt at adding hands to the composition jostles the perspective of the pose. The last painting we see on the first floor of the exhibition is Filippino's grand Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Bernard (1484-1485) where the strange figure popping out of the lower right hand corner is the commissioner of the work. His inclusion in the scene is a nice transition to the second level of the exhibition where we are introduced to Filippino's two greatest patrons, Filippo Strozzi the Elder and Oliviero Carafa, who vied for the rising star's attention to their great family chapels in Florence and Rome, respectively.

For aspiring artists, no greater success could be achieved than earning the admiration and the dollars of the most powerful families of their day. Rival to Filippino and Botticelli's other commissioners the Medici, Strozzi played a big part in elevating Filippino's status in Florence. In the first room on the second floor we see his Madonna Strozzi (1483-1484) and immediately know the patron by the three crescent moon crest in the lunettes above the colonnade as well as the tiny detail of a black man fishing off a bridge in the background, who is identified as Strozzi's slave, Giovanni. We also notice the recurring theme of books and detailed lettering in Filippino's paintings, like in the aforementioned Corsini Tondo where the scroll of music the angels are reading is so accurate that it can actually be played.

Strozzi also commissioned Filippino to decorate his family chapel in Santa Maria Novella, across from Florence's main train station. This stunning reliquary was in direct competition, both in terms of beauty and simultaneous commitment of the artist's time, with Cardinal Carafa's chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. Filippino seemed to focus more on the latter's commission, perhaps because of his religious upbringing or his fascination with the ancient ruins scattered throughout the Eternal City, and was in danger of losing favor with his primary patron at home. It's worth your time to read about the history of the tug of war between these two patrons, as in my opinion it is the last point of interest in the exhibition, which could have just as easily been reduced to only the collection on the first floor.

Filippino Lippi, Nerli Altarpiece of Madonna with Child and Young Saint John the Baptist (1493-1495)

If you decide to brave on - the entire exhibition will take you about two hours if you spend time reading and listening to all the audio, but can be done in under one hour if you simply peruse the paintings - you'll see the curious Nerli Altarpiece of Madonna with Child and Young Saint John the Baptist (1493-1495) that doesn't seem to be in line with Filippino's delicate style of faces. Filippino almost seems to become more Verrocchio/Da Vinci-esque later in his career, which can be seen in his Lamentation of Christ (1500-1504), and his style becomes more linear, with less of the fine chiaroscuro we see earlier in his development as an artist. By the time we reach Filippino's Udienza altarpiece Madonna and Child with Saints Stephen and John the Baptist (1503), his style has become almost unrecognizable, which is disappointing to the viewer who may feel as though they are beginning to understand his craft by the end of the show's lower level. In my opinion, the interest of the exhibition stops here, so save yourself the time and the effort to climb the low-gradient spiral staircase, the only evidence of the Scuderie's original function, and appreciate both Filippino and Botticelli in their prime, pre-1500.

SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE ~ VIA 24 MAGGIO, 16
Admission: 10€ full price tickets; 7.50€ reduced price for young people under 27 and seniors over 65; audio guide 4€

View of Rome out the back window of the Scuderie del Quirinale