Pair of Panels from a Triptych: The Archangel Michael and St. Anthony Abbot

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Artist: Filippo Lippi (Italian, 1406–1469)
Medium: Tempera on wood panel
Size: Unframed: 81.3 x 29.8 x 3 cm (32 x 11 3/4 x 1 3/16 in.)
Culture: Italy, Florence
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

These panels depicting Saints Anthony the Abbot and Michael originally flanked a central scene of the Madonna and Child with Angels, now lost, to form a triptych. Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici of Florence commissioned the ensemble in 1457 as a diplomatic gift to Alfonso V of Aragon. Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite friar and one of the great masters of early Renaissance Florence, depicted realistic, weighty figures in a three-dimensional space using a system of linear perspective, inspired partly by Masaccio’s Brancacci Chapel, and reflected in the background architecture.

Saint Anthony the Abbot rejected all earthly possessions in pursuit of a contemplative life in the desert. He is generally regarded as the founder of monasticism and is depicted wearing a monk’s habit. Saint Michael’s sword, shield, and exquisitely bejeweled armor celebrate his role as heaven’s defender against evil.