22 pages • 44 minutes read
Fra Lippo Lippi
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Themes
Fra Lippo Lippi’s Vision of Art’s Holy Purpose
Three views of art are presented in “Fra Lippo Lippi”: Cosimo’s, the Prior’s, and Fra Lippo Lippi’s. Fra Lippo Lippi counters the conventional and more reductive views of art offered by the other men to instead advocate for an art that is more realistic, combining the flesh with the spirit and celebrating the beauty of the world.
Both Cosimo de Medici and the Prior use art for their own ends, while pretending to care about its religious subject matter. For Cosimo, giving gifts of art to the city of Florence is good business. Fra Lippo Lippi’s art is a commodity to him, assuring his reputation as a benefactor. He is even willing to imprison Fra Lippo Lippi to finish his work, which suggests his concern is not the art itself but the mechanized completion of “saints and saints / [a]nd saints again” (Lines 48-49). The Prior, too, only uses Fra Lippo Lippi. First, he believes art will beautify his church and rival the art found in the churches of other Orders. Again, art is shown to be a commodity. When Fra Lippo Lippi finishes his first fresco, a realistic painting of the parishioners, he exposes the Prior’s mistress. The Prior deflects from his own hypocrisy by making Fra Lippo Lippi erase the work, and then insults his purpose: “Your business is not to catch men […] / [w]ith homage to the perishable clay” (Lines 179-80).
Fra Lippo Lippi, however, has developed his own rival ideas of art’s purpose. He feels that religious painting, which is often painted in a less realistic style, is devoid of emotion. For him, the world’s variety should be captured on canvas: “we love / First when we see them painted, things we have passed / Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see” (Lines 300-02). This is how an artist, he feels, can be a conduit for the Divine: “Art was given for that; / God uses us to help each other so” (Lines 304-05). While the spirit is important, Fra Lippo Lippi understands, too, “the value and significance of the flesh” (Line 268, emphasis added). In essence, if an artist can cause a viewer to see the beauty of the world, he is leading them to feel awe at the God who made it.
The poem ends with Fra Lippo Lippi hurrying off to return to Medici and painting Saint Jerome, “subdu[ing] the flesh” (Line 74), a task he hates. Although Fra Lippo Lippi is problematic and easily led by his lust, the poem suggests that his view of art winds up being far more holy than either Medici’s or the Prior’s.
The Difficulties of Restrictions
Existing in a society dominated by intense rules and regulations makes Fra Lippo Lippi chafe against such bonds, as he explains while recounting his story to the guard. Just as the old “horse out at grass / [a]fter hard years, throws up his stiff heels so” (Lines 254-55), Fra Lippo Lippi is trying to experience life fully after feeling trapped.
Fra Lippo Lippi resents the many restrictions that surround his ability to create art and live life. Inducted into a religious life as a child, he didn’t have the opportunities to explore sensual experiences or to create the kind of realistic art he wanted. He cannot express how he sees Florence and its inhabitants since he is not allowed to render “this fair town’s face, yonder river’s line / [t]he mountain round it and the sky above, / much more the figures of man, woman, child” (Lines 287-89). Instead, he must paint “saints and saints / [a]nd saints again” (Lines 48-49). Fra Lippo Lippi is gifted at realistic likenesses, as he proves to the head guard when he sketches a lifelike portrait of one of his men in chalk. Nevertheless, his artistry has been squelched by the Prior and others who feel he should “paint the soul, never mind the legs and arms!” (Line 193).
Fra Lippo Lippi “rage[s]” (Line 254) at those who do not understand his vision’s value, resenting both the Prior, who disparages it, as well as his need for a patron, whose bidding he must do. Still, he often acts in a transgressive manner, resisting as he can. Engaging in acts of escape, both mental and physical, he leaves the convent, escapes from de Medici’s imprisonment, follows the revelers, persuades the guards, and rejects conventions of religious art. However, his greatest expression of resistance is imaginary.
In his soon-to-be painted Madonna at “Sant’Ambrogio’s” (Line 346), he determines to insert a realistic version of himself into the holy company, if only on the sidelines: “[U]p shall [he] come / [o]ut of a corner when you least expect, / [a]s one by a dark stair into a great light” (Lines 360-362). When he momentarily doubts he should be there at all, an “angelic slip of a thing” (Line 370) appears to denote his necessity, noting it was he who acts as Creator. This, she posits, gives him as much credence as John the Baptist (See: Literary Devices). Equating this female figure to “Saint Lucy,” who leads people to a new beginning as portrayed by Dante, Fra Lippo Lippi finds “all’s saved for [him]” (Line 388) and is able to head home in the “grey beginning” (Line 392) of the dawn, ready to bear his restrictions with greater equanimity for the time being.
Deprivation Creates Desperation
One of the major themes of Fra Lippo Lippi’s monologue is the terrible cost of the deprivation of basic human needs. Fra Lippo Lippi’s attraction to earthly pleasure comes in part from the fact that food, shelter, and love were not available to him without conditions, if at all.
Fra Lippo Lippi’s basic needs for shelter and protection were not met until he was “eight years old” (Line 101) and inducted into the monastic life. Although he explains his initiation with a measure of levity regarding the deliciousness of the bread and the “good fat father” (Line 93) who gave it to him, the price is still high. In truth, he must “renounce the world” (Line 98) because he has little option for refusal. If he doesn’t accept, he’ll return to being destitute. This forced decision elevates his resentment toward men like de Medici, who has both wealth and power, and the Prior, who acts in hypocritical ways while preaching piety. Each man has the privilege and security Fra Lippo Lippi is denied.
Basic shelter is nearly denied him again when he cannot learn Latin, and he is threatened with expulsion from the convent by the monks. Were it not for the intercession by the Prior, he would be put back on the streets. This makes Fra Lippo Lippi prone to do what the Prior asks, despite the fact that it goes against his desires. Desperate for security, he ignores the Prior’s hypocrisy with his so-called niece and paints holy pictures for him, which are far from the realism he’d rather paint. Later, while he can paint what he wants, he is imprisoned by de Medici so that he finishes paintings for him. Even the thing he most treasures—art—serves as collateral.
Adding to his early destitution is the fact that Fra Lippo Lippi has been denied emotional attachment and physical pleasure. From the death of his mother to his aunt’s physical abuse, Fra Lippo Lippi has seen scant physical affection in his developmental years. This is exacerbated by the exacted promise that he “never kiss the girls” (Line 225). This denial makes him feel as starved as when he was living on “[r]efuse and rubbish” (Line 85). This explains, if it does not condone, his visits to “sportive women” (Line 6) as well as his vision of an approving angel who reaches out with “a soft palm” (Line 371). He is desperate for affection and has little in his life to offer him true sustenance. As the song of the revelers reveals, “Take away love, and our earth is a tomb!” (Line 54). Thus, for Fra Lippo Lippi, being deprived of such needs only intensifies his desire and determination to attain them anyway.
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