Filippino Lippi and the Ancient Language of Emotion
- Lecture
- Ticket Required
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Nelson
About The Event
Why did Italian Renaissance artists study ancient Roman art? One key reason, often overlooked, was the search for ways to express powerful emotions. We see this in the transformation of the art of Filippino Lippi (1457–1504) after he left his native Florence, lived in Rome (1489–93), and enriched his visual vocabulary. When Filippino returned home, he painted an ancient story, the “Death of Laocoön,” for a villa of the ruling Medici family. The magnificent preparatory drawing, on view in the CMA’s exhibition Filippino Lippi and Rome, lets us look over Filippino’s shoulder as he creates a new style—and provides a wonderful introduction to this highly inventive artist.
Jonathan Nelson, professor of art history at Syracuse University Florence, is the leading authority worldwide on Filippino Lippi. His numerous books include studies of Filippino, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Robert Mapplethorpe and, most recently, the publication Risks in Renaissance Art.
Featured Art
Sponsors
This program is made possible with support from the Painting and Drawing Society.
All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen and Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Medical Mutual of Ohio, the Edwin D. Northrup II Fund, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Linda Harper, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Susan LaPine, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, the Pickering Foundation, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Suzanne Cushwa Rusnak and Jeff Rusnak, Ellen and Lowell Satre, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, Jack and Jeanette Walton, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.