Lucrezia Buti (Florence, 1435; died in the sixteenth century) was an Italian nun, and later the lover of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi. She is believed to be the model for several of Lippi's Madonnas.

Lucrezia was born in Florence in 1435, the daughter of Francesco Buti and Caterina Ciacchi. She became a nun in the Dominican monastery of Santa Margherita in Prato. According to Vasari, while a novice or boarder at the monastery, she met the painter Fra Filippo Lippi who in 1456 had been commissioned to paint a picture for the nuns' high altar. Lippi requested Buti as a model for the Virgin in the painting he was creating for them.

Lippi fell in love with Buti during her sittings for the painting and caused a great scandal by kidnapping her from a procession of the Girdle of Thomas in Prato and took her to his nearby home. Despite attempts to force her to return to the monastery, Buti remained at Lippi's house at the piazza del Duomo.

Vasari records in his Lives of the Artists that in 1456 Fra Filippo while working in Prato, tended to frequent young women and indulge in countless romantic adventures. But it was one particularly comely young woman for whom he fell hard for.

It was in Prato while working on frescos to decorate the church of S. Margherita where he met and fell in love with the beautiful Lucrezia Buti, the daughter of Francesco Buti, a Florentine silk merchant. Lucrezia was born and raised in Florence, but after the death of her parents, Lucrezia was sent to  Prato and placed under the protection of the Sisters of Santa Margherita.

The first time Fra Filippo saw Lucrezia at the convent, he thought her face exquisite, and he knew she would be the perfect model for the Madonna for his altarpiece. Right away, he asked the sisters for permission for Lucrezia to sit for him in his studio where he could paint her portrait.

In 1457, Buti bore Lippi a son, Filippino, and in 1465 a daughter, Alessandra. Through the intervention of Cosimo de' Medici, the couple received a dispensation to marry from Pius II, but according to Vasari,  Lippi declined to marry Buti.

The couple remained together, and it was only several years later that Pope Pius II, thanks to the intercession of Cosimo de’ Medici, Fra Filippo, was granted an exemption to marry Lucrezia and to regularize their relationship.

Lucrezia is traditionally thought to be the model for Lippi's Madonna and Child, and Salome in his fresco cycle of the Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist in the cathedral of Prato.

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Lucrezia Buti (Florence, 1435; died in the sixteenth century) was an Italian nun, and later the lover of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi. She is believed to be the model for several of Lippi's madonnas.

Lucrezia was born in Florence in 1435, the daughter of Francesco Buti and Caterina Ciacchi. She became a nun in the Dominican monastery of Santa Margherita in Prato. According to Vasari, while a novice or boarder at the monastery, she met the painter and a chaplain to the convent in Prato Fra Filippo Lippi who in 1456 had been commissioned to paint a picture for the nuns' high altar. Lippi requested Buti as a model for the Virgin in the painting he was creating for them.

Lippi fell in love with Buti during her sittings for the painting and caused a great scandal by kidnapping her from a procession of the Girdle of Thomas in Prato and took her to his nearby home. Despite attempts to force her to return to the monastery, Buti remained at Lippi's house at the piazza del Duomo.

In 1457, Buti bore Lippi a son, Filippino, and in 1465 a daughter, Alessandra. Luckily, Lippi had powerful protectors: the Medici, for whom he painted his Annunciation (probably 1450s), now in the National Gallery. Lippi's biographer Vasari claims that Cosimo de' Medici loved Lippi despite his antics, and saw his fiery nature as typical of "rare minds". Through the intervention of Cosimo de' Medici, the couple received a dispensation to marry from Pius II.

The Virgin Mary in this most delicate and earthy of Florentine religious paintings has traditionally been identified as Lucrezia. Certainly, the same model poses as Mary in his circular, beautiful, and Two Angels with the Birth of the Virgin and The Meeting of Joachim and Anna (c1452 or mid to late 1460s) in the Pitti Palace, Florence. These two paintings stand out among Lippi's works for the emotionally involved representation of a Madonna who seems unequivocally a real woman.

Pictured: Madonna With Child and Two Angels, Filippo Lippi (c.1465)

St. Catherine, Filippo Lippi Fra Filippo Lippi, ou simplesmente Lippo Lippi, (Florença, c.1406 - Spoleto, 8 ou 10 de outubro de 1469) foi um conhecido pintor florentino do Renascimento. Lippi foi patrocinado principalmente pelos Médici e dentre seus trabalhos podem-se citar: os afrescos da Capela dos Médici; A Virgem e Menino com Anjos (1467 – 1475) e; A Virgem e Menino com História da Vida de Sant'Ana (1452). Aos oito anos de idade, a sua tia internou-o num mosteiro carmelita na Toscânia. A vida religiosa, porém, não lhe caiu bem, como descreve Giorgio Vasari em seu livro "As Vidas dos Artistas": "Ao invés de estudar, ele passava todo o tempo rabiscando desenhos em seus livros e nos dos outros, o que naturalmente levou a que o monsenhor lhe desse todas as oportunidades possíveis para que aprendesse a pintar." Durante trabalhos na cidade de Prato, apaixonou-se por uma noviça chamada Lucrezia Buti filha de Francesco Buti e Caterina Ciacchi. Com ela teve um filho, Filippino Lippi, que também se tornou pintor. #filippolippi #filippinolippi https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzc0TS1JVgx/?igshid=ixtbid5ypent