MADONNA AND CHILD by Filippino Lippi. The Jules Bache Collection, 1949, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
From Il Libro dell’Arte the author Cennino Cennini (c.1360 – before 1427) writes:
On the Character of Ultramarine Blue, and how to make it:
Ultramarine blue is a colour illustrious, beautiful, and most perfect beyond all other colours: one could not say anything about it, or do anything with it, that its quality would not still surpass.
The deep blue colour pigment ultramarine was made from precious lapis lazuli, which was brought by Italian traders to Italy from mines in Afghanistan – hence its name derived from the Latin ultramarinus meaning “beyond the sea”.
In this painting of the Madonna and Child (c.1483-84), the artist Filippino Lippi has used the finest ultramarine in the Virgin’s robe. This act of material display would have been requested and specifically paid for by the wealthy Florentine banker Filippo Strozzi who commissioned the painting.
