View source for Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard (Filippino Lippi)

{{Short description|Painting by Filippino Lippi in the Badia Fiorentina, a church in Florence}}
{{About|Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard by Filippino Lippi||Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard (Fra Bartolomeo)}}
{{Infobox Artwork
| image_file=Bernardo claraval filippino lippi.jpg
| image_size=300px
| title=Apparition of the Virgin to St Bernard
| artist=[[Filippino Lippi]]
| year=c. 1485–1487
| medium=Oil on panel
| height_metric=210
| width_metric=195
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| museum=[[Badia Fiorentina]]
|city=[[Florence]]
}}
'''''Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard''''' is an oil painting on panel by the [[Italy|Italian]] [[Renaissance]] painter [[Filippino Lippi]], completed around 1485–1487.<ref>Rowlands, Eliot W., and Marilyn Bradshaw. "Lippi family." Grove Art Online. January 01, 2003. Oxford University Press.</ref> It is housed in the [[Badia Fiorentina]], a church in [[Florence]].
The picture was commissioned for the chapel of Francesco del Pugliese by the latter's son Piero, who is portrayed in the lower right corner in the traditional praying posture of the [[donor portrait]].
It is one of the most admired Lippi's works,<ref>[http://www.artonline.it/opera.asp?IDOpera=1424 Page at artonline.it] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928001102/http://www.artonline.it/opera.asp?IDOpera=1424 |date=September 28, 2007 }}</ref> noted for its powerful, Flemish-inspired chromatism and attention to details, which contribute in turning the mystical [[Marian apparition|apparition of the Virgin]] to [[Bernard of Clairvaux|St. Bernard]] into an everyday life scene. The composition is set in a rocky landscape in which the saint, while writing on his [[lectern]], is suddenly visited by the Virgin. Behind Bernard's shoulders is depicted the demon biting his chains: this is a reference to a medieval hymn celebrating the Virgin as the liberator of humanity from the chains of their sins.
A scroll on a rock contains a verse by the 3rd century AD [[Stoicism|stoic]] writer [[Epictetus]]: ''Sustine et abstine'' ("Carry on and abstain"), a hint to Bernard's teachings.
Some scholars have identified in the faces of the Virgin and the angels on the left the portraits of the donor's wife and sons.
==References==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928001102/http://www.artonline.it/opera.asp?IDOpera=1424 Page at artonline.it] {{in lang|it}}
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
{{Filippino Lippi}}
{{15C-painting-stub}}
[[Category:1480 paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings by Filippino Lippi]]
[[Category:Paintings of the Virgin Mary]]
[[Category:Books in art]]
[[Category:Angels in art]]
[[Category:Paintings of Bernard of Clairvaux]]