The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Pair of Panels from a Triptych: The Archangel Michael and St. Anthony Abbot

1458

Fra Filippo Lippi

(Italian, c. 1406–1469)
Italy, Florence, 15th century
tempera on wood panel
Framed: 94 x 40 x 6.5 cm (37 x 15 3/4 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 81.3 x 29.8 x 3 cm (32 x 11 3/4 x 1 3/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1964.150
Location: 010 Focus Gallery

Did You Know?

Saint Michael's opulent appearance reflects the wealth and status of both the patron and the recipient of these paintings.

Description

These panels depicting Saints Anthony the Abbot and Michael originally flanked a central scene of the Madonna and Child with Angels, now lost, to form a triptych. Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici of Florence commissioned the ensemble in 1457 as a diplomatic gift to Alfonso V of Aragon. Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite friar and one of the great masters of early Renaissance Florence, depicted realistic, weighty figures in a three-dimensional space using a system of linear perspective, inspired partly by Masaccio’s Brancacci Chapel, and reflected in the background architecture. Saint Anthony the Abbot rejected all earthly possessions in pursuit of a contemplative life in the desert. He is generally regarded as the founder of monasticism and is depicted wearing a monk’s habit. Saint Michael’s sword, shield, and exquisitely bejeweled armor celebrate his role as heaven’s defender against evil.
  • by 1457
    Commissioned by Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici, Florence, as a gift for King Alfonso V of Aragon (Alfonso I of Naples)
    by 1458
    Collection of King Alfonso V of Aragon (Alfonso I of Naples), Naples
    by 1871
    Collection of Countess Sara Pacheco, Madrid
    1871
    Purchased by Sir John Charles Robinson, Madrid, for Sir Fancis Cook, Soughty House, Richmond, Surrey
    By descent to Sir Frederick Cook, Sir Herbert Cook, and their heirs
    by 1964
    Rosenberg & Stiebel Inc., New York
    1964
    The Cleveland Museum of Art
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  • {{cite web|title=Pair of Panels from a Triptych: The Archangel Michael and St. Anthony Abbot|url=false|author=Fra Filippo Lippi|year=1458|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.150