By Anne Leader
Fra Filippo Lippi died on 8 October 1469 while working on frescoes for the cathedral of Spoleto. He was 63 years old. One of the leading Florentine painters working in the decades after Masaccio, Filippo excelled in both fresco and panel painting and trained important later Renaissance painters including Sandro Botticelli and his own son Filippino. Among his last works were frescoes depicting the Life of the Virgin at Spoleto Cathedral, which he started in May 1466. Documents suggest that the Coronation scene was finished two-and-a-half years later. Poor health prevented Filippo from working much more on the cycle, and the remainder was left to assistants, above all Fra Diamante, who finished the task a few months after Filippo died.
Reference: Eliot W. Rowlands and Marilyn Bradshaw. “Lippi.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
Further reading: Fra Filippo Lippi by Jeffrey Ruda (1999).
Apse frescoes,1467-69, Spoleto Cathedral