Lippo
Memmi
Italian painter, Sienese school (b. ca. 1285, Siena, d. ca. 1361,
Siena)
He
was the son of MEMMO DI FILIPPUCCIO, the brother of
Tederigho (also spelt Federigo) Memmi and, after 1324,
brother-in-law of Simone and Donato Martini, all of whom
were painters. He is known through signed works,
documentary references and early secondary sources. In
1317 he signed and dated a frescoed Virgin and Child
Enthroned with Saints (‘Maesta’) in the
Palazzo del Popolo, San Gimignano. Commissioned by the
podesta, Nello di Mino de’ Tolomei of Siena, the
work is an adaptation of Simone Martini’s fresco of the
Maesta in the Sala del Mappamondo of the Palazzo
Pubblico, Siena. A diptych of the Virgin and Child
and St John the Baptist, originally in Pisa
(Berlin, Gemäldegal., and New York, W. B. Golovin priv.
col.), is signed and dated 1333. In the same year Lippo
and Simone Martini signed and dated the altarpiece of
the Annunciation (Florence, Uffizi), originally
from the altar of St Ansanus in Siena Cathedral. The
precise nature and extent of Lippo’s participation in
this work are disputed by scholars. A fragmentary fresco
of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with SS Peter and
Paul and Two Angels (Siena, Pin. N.) from the
cloister of S Domenico, Siena, once bore a signature
and, perhaps, a partial date of
MCCCL....In S Maria dei Servi, Siena, there is a
signed but undated half-length Virgin and Child. A Virgin and Child Enthroned (Altenburg,
Staatl. Lindenau-Mus.) carries what is apparently an
original inscription (LIPPUS
MEMMI DE SENIS ME PINXIT), but its style bears
little resemblance to that of Lippo Memmi’s other known
works. A Madonna of Mercy in Orvieto Cathedral is
signed LIPPUS DE SENA,
but there is much disagreement over attempts to identify
this artist with Lippo Memmi.
