| Description | According to Vasari's Lives of the Artists, in about June 1456 Fra Filippo Lippi settled in Prato, near Florence, to paint frescoes in the choir of the cathedral. Before starting this work he set about painting, in 1458, a picture for the convent chapel of S. Margherita of Prato, and there saw Lucrezia Buti, the beautiful daughter of a Florentine, Francesco Buti. She was either a novice or a young lady placed under the nuns' guardianship. Lippi asked that she might be permitted to sit to him for the figure of the Madonna (or, it might rather appear, of S. Margherita). He abducted her to his own house, and kept her there despite the utmost efforts of the nuns to reclaim her. The couple had a boy, who became the equally celebrated painter, Filippino Lippi. This story, whether true or not, received a wide readership via Vasari and the scene of the artist seducing the nun became a popular image. |
