Vierge de l'Annonciation

1452

Chaplain to the nuns of Santa Maria Maddalena

In 1452 Lippi becomes chaplain to the nuns of the Monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena in Florence. Despite the income from this and other posts he remains in debt and lives in poverty.

1456

Lucrezia Buti: an abduction from the convent in Prato

In 1456 Lippi, who was painting frescoes in the cathedral of Prato, abducts a young novice, Lucrezia Buti, from a convent and lives with her. According to Vasari, having been commissioned by the nuns of Santa Margherita to paint an altarpiece, he obtained permission to paint the Madonna from her, fell in love and took her away on the day she went to see the procession of the Virgin’s girdle. Other accounts place the meeting in 1458, although the son from this relationship was born in 1457.

after 1456

The pope allows a marriage: Cosimo de’ Medici intercedes

Lippi suffered many troubles and anxieties from his rash act, until the pope, at the intercession of Cosimo de’ Medici, gave him and Lucrezia permission to marry; it is not known whether they used it. According to another version, the painter was poisoned before the permission arrived.

after 1456

Creditors, prison and noble patrons

Despite his fame Lippi knew no peace because of his disorderly life and extravagance: creditors pursued him and he found himself in prison more than once, but each time noble patrons got him out.

8 October 1469

Death in Spoleto: the poisoning version

Lippi dies in Spoleto on or about 8 October 1469, while still working on the apse frescoes; the mode of his death is a matter of dispute: according to one version, before the pope’s permission to marry Lucrezia arrived he was poisoned by indignant relatives of Lucrezia or, in another version, by relatives of someone who had replaced her in the painter’s affections.

8 ottobre 1469

Died