The Cleveland Museum of Art Presents Filippino Lippi and Rome

Cleveland (November 24, 2025)—The Cleveland Museum of Art’s (CMA) newest exhibition, Filippino Lippi and Rome, reveals the artistic processes and iconographic ingenuities of one of the most gifted and accomplished Renaissance painters, Filippino Lippi. The first-of-its-kind exhibition to focus on Lippi’s transformative period in the Eternal City (1488–93) and its lasting impact on his oeuvre, the exhibition juxtaposes Lippi’s Roman artworks with their Florentine precursors and successors. Visitors will encounter 25 paintings, drawings, and antiquities in direct conversation, with important loans from national and international lenders, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; His Majesty King Charles III; the National Gallery, London; the Galleria degli Uffizi; and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Together, the artworks—some of which will be displayed outside of Europe for the first time—elucidate the evolution of Lippi’s artistic practice before, during, and after his Roman period. 

On view beginning Friday, November 28, 2025, through Sunday, February 22, 2026, in the Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery, this free exhibition places the CMA’s seminal Renaissance tondo, The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret, at the center of the exhibition.  

“Filippino Lippi and Rome traces the arc of Filippino’s career across time and media, constituting a unique opportunity for scholars and the public alike to discover the inspiration he found in the antiquities of the Eternal City,” said Alexander J. Noelle, Henry and Anne Ott-Hansen Family Associate Curator of European Paintings and Sculpture, 1500–1800. “The gallery also features a digital iteration of Filippino’s tondo, revealing new technical imagery captured especially for this exhibition. The full-scale animation allows visitors to peer beneath the surface and see, for the first time, his artistic process as he designed and revised the underdrawing, underpainting, and final painted layers of the Holy Family, one of his most important and impressive commissions.” 

Visitors to the exhibition begin by discovering the artist’s Florentine origins, from training in his father Fra Filippo Lippi’s and Sandro Botticelli’s workshops to the establishment of his own independent style and his landmark early commissions, such as the Annunciation tondi. 

The central section of the exhibition explores Filippino’s Roman period, with the Cleveland tondo at its heart, reunited with its preparatory drawing for the first time. This monumental tondo was commissioned by cardinal Oliviero Carafa, a leading spiritual and political figure who had engaged Filippino to fresco his chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, one of Rome’s most important holy spaces. Both Carafa commissions illustrate the impact of antiquity on Filippino’s artistic development, as is revealed by his studies for the Carafa chapel, sketches of ancient Roman designs, and drawings of his pictorial inventions inspired by antique sculpture, murals, and architecture. Throughout this part of the exhibition, Filippino’s paintings and drawings are juxtaposed with antique statues to illuminate his study of the ancient world. 

The final section of the exhibition reconsiders the enduring influence of Rome on Filippino’s later Florentine works, as evidenced by his continued adaptation of antique designs and compositional elements. The legacy of the CMA’s tondo is also explored; it proved to be an influential masterpiece that other artists, both within and far beyond Filippino’s circle, adapted for their own artworks. These paintings and drawings reveal the reciprocal flow of inspiration between Filippino and other artists, including Raffaellino del Garbo and Leonardo da Vinci.  

Thanks to a major gift from the CMA’s Painting and Drawing Society, the exhibition also marks the debut of a magnificent new frame for the tondo, replacing the former frame, which was not original and was unsuitable in scale and design. This new frame was hand carved and gilded in Florence and is based on a prototype made for Botticelli.  

Filippino Lippi and Rome is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated scholarly catalogue that shines new light on one of the most iconic and beloved masterpieces from the CMA’s renowned collection as well as this pivotal phase of Filippino’s lauded career.  

Principal support for Filippino Lippi and Rome is provided by the Malcolm E. Kenney Curatorial Research Fund. Major support is provided by the Robert Lehman Foundation. Additional support is provided by Roger G. Simon.  

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions.  Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, the Leigh H. Carter family, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Mary and Jim Conway, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Martha H. and Steven M. Hale, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Linda Harper, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Mrs. Nancy M. Lavelle, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, the Pickering Foundation, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Elizabeth and Tim Sheeler, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage. 

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About the Cleveland Museum of Art 

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovation. One of the foremost encyclopedic art museums in the United States, the CMA is recognized for its award-winning open access program—which provides free digital access to images and information about works in the museum’s collection—and is free of charge to all. The museum is located in the University Circle neighborhood with two satellite locations on Cleveland’s west side: the Community Arts Center and Transformer Station. 

The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. For more information about the museum and its holdings, programs, and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit cma.org.