1490
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret is a 1490 unspecified by Filippino Lippi, a Early Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see five saints crammed inside a round frame: Mary, baby Jesus, John the Baptist, Saint Margaret, and Joseph watching from behind a low wall. The round shape was tricky—most paintings are rectangles. Filippino made it work by twisting the figures together like a knot, so no one gets cut off at the edges. The wall in front holds little objects that hint at daily life, mixing the holy with the ordinary. Look up *sfumato*—the soft, smoky way he blends colors so the faces glow.
This monumental tondo, among Filippino’s most significant works, was commissioned by Neapolitan cardinal Oliviero Carafa, a leading political and ecclesiastical figure. The painter’s ingenious composition harmoniously overlaps five brilliantly colored divine figures within the challenging circular format. Behind a low wall adorned with sacred and domestic objects, Joseph observes the intertwined group of Mary holding Christ, who embraces his cousin John the Baptist, supported by Saint Margaret. Created during Filippino’s Roman years (1488–93), the painting reflects the inspiration he drew…
Ultramarine, the blue pigment used lavishly across this tondo (circular painting), was many times more expensive than gold in the Renaissance.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Filippino Lippi (probably 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance.
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