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A woman supports a pudgy baby who sits on a stone ledge in this vertical painting. They both have pale skin, rosy cheeks, blond hair, and subtle halos made of gold dots. The woman’s body faces us, and her head tips to our left. She looks at us with brown eyes under delicate brows, and she has a straight nose, full cheeks, and her small, bow-shaped lips are slightly parted. A translucent white veil wraps around her hair and falls to her shoulders. Her rose-pink dress is pleated vertically down the front, and her lapis-blue cloak falls from her shoulders. Gold lettering lines the neckline of the dress and the full sleeves of the cloak. A gold star is painted on her right shoulder, to our left, and gold dots create shimmering highlights on her clothing. She braces the baby’s chest with one hand, and the other rests behind the forest-green pillow on which he sits. The child has small, light brown eyes, a delicate nose, and round cheeks. A white cloth wraps around his chest and falls across his lap. He holds onto the woman’s hand with one of his own, and his other hand grips the woman’s ring finger. The woman stands behind the ledge in front of a carved, round-topped niche. The niche is inset with laurel-green stone around a half shell that curves over her head. The upper corners and back of the niche below the shell are set with pink stone against the white molding.

Fra Filippo Lippi

Madonna and Child, c. 1440

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 4

Medium

tempera on poplar panel

Dimensions

overall: 79 x 51.1 cm (31 1/8 x 20 1/8 in.)

framed: 117.2 x 85.4 x 9.5 cm (46 1/8 x 33 5/8 x 3 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1939.1.290

Artists / Makers

Fra Filippo Lippi (painter) Florentine, c. 1406 - 1469

Image Use

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Provenance

Edward Solly [1776-1844], Berlin, by 1819;[1] sold 1821 to the Königliche Museen (later Kaiser-Friedrich Museum), Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (until 1840 as no. I.165, afterward as no. 58); deaccessioned and sold 1937 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold June 1938 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] It does not appear that the painting was ever in London, as is sometimes affirmed. In fact, it was not part of Edward Solly's second collection, put together after his move to London in 1821. His first collection was formed in Berlin, probably beginning in 1813 (see Maria Dietl, "The Picture Gallery of Berlin: The Formation of the Solly Collection," Giovanni Morelli e la cultura dei conoscitori. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Bergamo 1987, Bergamo, 1993: 49-59). Onto the back of the painting has been transferred an old label with the Prussian eagle, the letters T.N., and the number 27. This mark, whose precise meaning has not yet been clarified, is often seen on the labels attached to the backs of paintings coming from the Solly collection, and probably originated at the time of the preparation of the "Vorläufiges Verzeichnis" of 1819; see Wilhelm H. Köhler, "Die Sammlung Solly, Merkmale und Kennzeichen ihrer Bilder," in Miklós Boskovits, Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Katalog der Gemälde. Frühe italienische Malerei, Berlin, 1987: 185-186.

[2] No. 58 is cited for the last time in a publication of the Berlin museum in Irene Kunze, Staatliche Museen in Berlin. Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. Führer durch die Gemäldegalerie. Die italienischen Meister, Berlin, 1934: 17. By the mid-1930s the Berlin museum evidently wished to acquire some German paintings that were no longer in that country. This desire was referenced in a letter written by Duveen Brothers on 26 February 1937 to the director of the paintings department at the Berlin museum, offering to him the Portrait of a Man with Lute by Hans Holbein (now no. 2154 in Berlin, then “said to be …of Jean de Dinteville,” from Henry Goldman’s collection in New York) in exchange for two paintings in Berlin, this painting and another NGA painting, Duccio's The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekial (NGA 1937.1.8). (Copy of the letter and an office memo in NGA curatorial files; Reel 48, Box 139, Folder 4 and Reel 189, Box 334, Folder 2, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.) The date of de-accession is also given by Robert Oertel, Fra Filippo Lippi, Vienna, 1942: 75.

[3] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of eight paintings, including NGA 1939.1.290, is dated 21 June 1938; the provenance is given as "The Kaiser Friedrich Museum" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1330.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kaiser Friedrich Museum
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Solly, Edward

Exhibition History

2013: Da Donatello a Lippi: Officina pratese, Museo Civico di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, 2013-2014, no. 4.4, repro.

Bibliography

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