On the scaffolding with Filippo Lippi

The cycle of frescoes showing scenes from the lives of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist painted between 1452 and 1465 in the central chapel of the cathedral of Prato represent, without a doubt, the highest point of the production of the Florentine artist, for the complexity and quality of the paintings. After receiving his training at the Carmine convent, where he lived as a monk and experimented with the new techniques developed by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, Lippi re-elaborated the plasticism and naturalism of his master, mediating them with elements of style learned from Donatello, to achieve his own personal form of expression, characterized by the supple extension of line, by the 'grandiloquence' of his style and his free use of spatial arrangement. We see this very clearly in his frescoes in Prato, indeed his celebrated Dance of Salomè has become a compendium of an ideal Renaissance Florence from the point of view of the content, and of the subtlety and pictorial refinement that are a prelude to the work of Botticelli, in terms of the form.
The restoration of these paintings, planned and entirely financed by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, through the Board of Supervision of the Architectural and Artistic Treasures of Florence, Pistoia and Prato, started in the spring of 2001 with the preparation of the worksite and preliminary operations: studies of the artistic technique used, the state of conservation, the causes of the deterioration of the frescoes. This will be followed by the actual restoration, that will take several years.

Given these factors, since the work was first planned the Board of Supervision has expressed its strong interest in supporting guided tours to the worksite so as not to deny the public the opportunity to view this masterpiece by Lippi during the extensive period of time that will be needed for the restoration.
The initiative was welcomed enthusiastically by the Diocese of Prato, which owns the cathedral, which immediately undertook to organize the tours, involving the Agency for Tourism of Prato in the project, with its call center, and the Cultural Association Fare Arte, which is responsible for the actual tours.

It will thus be possible for everyone, from now until the work is completed, to follow the progress of the restoration project, and have a close-up view of the expressive quality of Lippi's work, his capacity to create an atmosphere and his mastery of perspective, the timeless beauty of his female figures, the excitement of the act of painting: the youthful passion that nourished the artist during the years that he labored in the Cathedral, through his love affair with Lucrezia Buti, the young nun from the nearby Convent of Santa Margherita who was his model.


                                                                                                                                  Isabella Lapi Ballerini