LIPPO D'ANDREA | A PROPHET

Private collection, Milan.

Before Lippo D’Andrea’s artistic identity was recently confirmed, his oeuvre had been attributed to a painter otherwise known as the Pseudo-Ambrogio di Baldese. He represents one of the more conservative styles of Florentine paintings from the first third of the 15th century. His compositions were highly sought after, even as other artists experimented with a more humanist approach in the dawn of the Early Renaissance.

The natural folds of the cloths and realistic rendering of the saint's beard give this panel a likely date of execution to circa 1420, when the artist's Gothic style was influenced by the humanist advancements of his peers in Florence, including Lorenzo Monaco (1370 - 1425) and Giovanni dal Ponte (1385 - 1438).

We are grateful to Dr. Angelo Tartuferi for endorsing the attribution to Lippo D’Andrea on the basis of first-hand inspection.

1. For more information on the artist, please refer to L. Kanter, "Lippo d'Andrea di Lippo", in Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450, New York 1994, pp. 318-21.