Circumcision 1465

Filippo Lippi's "Circumcision" was painted sometime in the 15th century, using tempera on a wooden panel. Lippi, like other Renaissance artists, had to grind his own pigments and mix them with egg yolk to create tempera paint. The intense preparation of materials speaks to the importance of monastic workshops during this period, whose artistic outputs reflect the values of patronage, as well as the politics of religious art. The marble altar in the painting might seem like a simple backdrop, but think about the labor it took to quarry, transport, carve and polish this stone. The very nature of the pigments, and the labor that went into their preparation, signals the value placed on images during this time. Ultimately, considering the materials and processes used in its creation allows us to look past the face value of this painting, granting insights into social and cultural practices of the Italian Renaissance.