Portrait of a Women with a Man at a Casement by Fra Filippo Lippi - Research Paper Example

Fra Filippo Lippi's Portrait of a Man and a Woman at a Casement Fra Filippo Lippi's Portrait of a Man and a Woman at a Casement is regarded as one of greatest pieces of Florentine art. The piece has gained renown for a number of reasons, one being that it is the earliest double portrait in Italian Art surviving today. There are various interpretations of the possessions shown in the portrait but many critics contend that the coat of arms below the hands of the man belongs to the Scolari family of Florence although there is no conclusive evidence in the portrait to establish that.

Also the couple shown is believed to be Ranieri Scolari and Angiola di Bernardo Sapiti. The portrait was painted in 1440 and the couple is recorded to have been married in 1936; therefore the interpretation that the portrait is a commemoration of a wedding is plausible. Barnet asserts that in the formal analysis of portraits, one needs to consider how do the background, the angle of the tilt of the head, the furnishings etc help to develop the overall impression of the figure (2008). When scrutinizing this portrait, one can appreciate that the bride is laden with lavish clothes and jewelry typical of a newly-wedded woman.

The laws of Florence required that a woman, unless she was the wife of a foreigner, knight or a doctor, would only wear expensive dresses for a limited period of time (The City Review 2009); therefore a special occasion is shown in the portrait. The overdress has fur lining its edges whereas the underdress has loops of gold embedded in the sleeves. The headdress, sella, has pearls embellished into it and are also present throughout her dress. The pattern in which they are embedded makes the word lealta, meaning loyalty.

The couple glances in an expressionless way although the gazes do not interlock (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2011). Another interpretation of the portrait is that it may represent the birth of a child. If that is the case, one can provide the rationale for why the wife occupies most of the picture and everything else just ebbs away. The female has been given more attention and emphasis. The roundedness of the female figure delineates the idealization of the female to their typical Renaissance features.

The man is only wearing a hat, compared to the extensive adornments of the female. While the man is looking inside, the female maybe assumed to be looking out of a window with the shadow of the husband’s face in the background. The painter has used the window as a fictive space (The City Review 2009). This makes the man appear subsidiary. If the portrait is a depiction of a child birth, the woman may be assumed to be looking out of the window in anticipation of the baby’s introduction to the world outside (Chimere 2004).

According to some, the portrait is a delineation of the carnal desires of man. The robes that the man is wearing are red, representative of the robes of the cardinals. The man is shown to be expressing a deep interest in the woman sitting across the casement window. The woman, although dressed lavishly, can also be interpreted to have a demure confessional pose (Cone 2001). Bibliography Barnet, Sylvan. 2008. A short guide to Writing About Art. Pearson. Chimere. 2004. A Discussion of Portraits. eCheat. http://echeat.org/essay.php?

t=25578 Cone, Michele C. 2001. Renaissance Love. Artnet. http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/cone/cone1-13-09.asp The City Review. 2009. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy. The City Review. http://www.thecityreview.com/metital.html The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2011. Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement, ca. 1440–44. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/89.15.19