LIPPI, Fra Filippo
(b. 1406, Firenze, d. 1469, Spoleto)

View of the Apse of the Cathedral

1467-69
Fresco
Cathedral, Spoleto

The frescoes telling the Life of the Virgin in the conch of Spoleto cathedral apse were the last and most ambitious of Filippo Lippi's works. They remained incomplete at his death but were finished a couple of months later, in December 1469, by his son Filippino who was still very young at the time. The priestly grandeur of the images is drafted with graphic clarity.

The Mary cycle consists of the following scenes: the Coronation of Mary attended by angels and saints (above), Dormition of Mary between the scenes of the Annunciation (left) and the Nativity (right).