Lippo Memmi

Filippo di Memmo

Sienese, active 1317/1347

Explore Selected Works

Shown from the hips up, a young woman holds an upright baby against a richly patterned gold background in this vertical panel painting, which comes to a point at the top center. The woman nearly fills the panel, and she looms over a very small man kneeling in the lower left, facing our right in profile. The people all have ivory-white skin with a greenish cast, and petal-pink cheeks. The woman’s body faces us, supporting the baby in the curve of her left arm, our right. Thin, tawny-brown eyebrows arch over her hazel, almond-shaped eyes, which gaze off to our right. She has a long, narrow nose and small rose-pink mouth. Her head tilts to our right and is covered by an ivory-white cloth that frames her round face and wraps around the neckline of her burgundy-red gown. Over the white cloth and red dress, a long, midnight-blue mantle trimmed with gold covers her head, shoulders, and arms. A gold starburst adorns one shoulder. Tucked in the woman’s elbow to our right, the baby faces our left and wears a sheer garment covered by a burgundy-red, gold-edged cloth draped across his shoulders, back, and legs. The child has short, wavy, peach-colored hair and echos the woman’s thin eyebrows and hazel eyes. He reaches out with his right hand, to our left, to clutch her scarf while his other hand delicately touches the fingers of her hand, which brushes his chest. The man in the lower left is significantly smaller in scale so his kneeling body comes only up to the woman's elbow. His blond hair is cut in a ring above the ears, and he wears a dove-gray cloak with a long hood falling back over his shoulders. His right hand is raised, fingers extended, and he tilts his head up to look at the woman. Intricate, patterned halos surrounding the heads of the woman and child are punched and incised into the gold background. A decorative border of flowers, leaves, and dots line the sides of the panel and meet at the pointed top. Areas of brick red show through some areas of the gold background.
Lippo Memmi, Madonna and Child with Donor, 1325/1330, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.11

Madonna and Child with Donor

Lippo Memmi · 1325/1330 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.11

Shown from the hips up, a bearded man wearing a textured shirt under a cranberry-red robe stands in front of a gold background in this vertical painting, which comes to a pointed arch at the top. The man’s pale skin has a green-gray cast in the shadows, but his cheeks are pink. His body faces us, but he looks off to our right with slitted, brown eyes under curving brows. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are closed. His shoulder-length brown hair curls around his head, and his beard falls to his chest in long ropes like thick fringe. His textured shirt is topaz blue, and the red robe is edged with gold. He holds his right arm, to our left, so it crosses his chest as he points to our right. A scroll in the other hand reads, “ECCE AGNUS DEI.ECCE Q.” A patterned halo is punched and incised into the gold background. Molding creating a three-lobed shape over the man’s head is punched with dots and marquis-shaped designs. Areas of brick red show through some areas of the gold background.
Lippo Memmi, Saint John the Baptist, probably c. 1325, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.291

Saint John the Baptist

Lippo Memmi · probably c. 1325 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.291

Bibliography

1907

  • Weigelt, Curt H. “Lippo Memmi.” In Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Edited by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 23(1929):275-277.

1958

  • Carli, Enzo. Pittura pisana del Trecento, 1: Dal Maestro di S. Torpe al Trionfo della Morte. Milan, 1958.

1960

  • Ranucci, Cristina. "Lippo di Memmo di Filippuccio (Memmi)." In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 79+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 65(2005):225-228.

1976

  • Caleca, Antonio. “Tre polittici di Lippo Memmi, un’ipotesi sul Barna e la bottega di Simone e Lippo, 1.” Critica d’Arte 41 (1976): 49-59.

1977

  • Bennett, Bonnie Apgar. "Lippo Memmi, Simone Martini’s “fratello in arte”: the Image Revealed by His Documented Works." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1977.

  • Caleca, Antonio. “Tre polittici di Lippo Memmi, un’ipotesi sul Barna e la bottega di Simone e Lippo, 2.” Critica d’Arte 42 (1977): 55-80.

1982

  • Volpe, Carlo. “Barna (Federico Memmi?).” In Il gotico a Siena: miniature, pitture, oreficerie, oggetti d’arte. Exh. cat. Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Florence, 1982: 186-187.

1985

  • Previtali, Giovanni. “Introduzione.” In Simone Martini e “chompagni.” Edited by Alessandro Bagnoli and Luciano Bellosi. Florence, 1985: 11-32.

1986

  • Freuler, Gaudenz. “Lippo Memmi’s New Testament Cycle in the Collegiata in San Gimignano.” Arte Cristiana 74 (1986): 83-102.

1989

  • Castri, Serenella. "Memmi, Lippo (Lippo di Memmo di Filippuccio)." In Dizionario della pittura e dei pittori. Edited by Enrico Castelnuovo and Bruno Toscano. 6 vols. Turin, 1989-1994: 3(1992):580-581.

1991

  • De Benedictis, Cristina. “Lippo Memmi.” In Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale. Edited by Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana. 12 vols. Rome, 1991-2002: 7(1996):731-736.

1996

  • Maginnis, Hayden B.J. "Lippo Memmi." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 19:454-455.

2002

  • Franci, Beatrice. "Memmi, Lippo." In La pittura in Europa. Il Dizionario dei pittori. Edited by Carlo Pirovano. 3 vols. Milan, 2002: 2:590-591.

2003

  • "Memmi, Lippo." In Dictionnaire de la peinture. Edited by Michel Laclotte and Jean Pierre Cuzin. Paris, 2003: 639-640.

2008

  • Labriola, Ada. Simone Martini e la pittura gotica a Siena: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Memmo di Filippuccio, Pietro Lorenzetti, Ugolino di Nerio, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Lippo Memmi, Matteo Giovanetti, Naddo Ceccarelli, Bartolomeo Bulgarini, Niccolò di Ser Sozzo. I Grandi maestri dell'arte 19. Florence, 2008: 54-58, 203-221.

2016

  • Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 201-202.