Su te stenderà la sua ombra. Iconografia e tipologia biblica in due Annunciazioni di Filippo Lippi

This study is devoted to the symbolic significance of shadow and light in two works by Filippo Lippi: The Annunciation in the Martelli Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence and the painting of the same subject in the Frick Collection in New York. In the Renaissance, the shadow that appears in the Annunciation is often associated with the procreative power of God. The fact that Filippo Lippi makes use of this sense of the shadow is particularly evident in his Frick Annuciation. It is less well known that in the art of Filippo the shadow has a dual meaning. In fact, the contrast between light and shade in these pictures was not a result of experimentation with natural light; nor is it a difference - as some have argued - caused by the fact that the two halves of the picture were originally intended to be installed separately like the wings of an organ or an "armadio" (closet for ex voto). Instead, I believe that the difference in the way in which the two parts of these paintings are illuminated is a pun intended to emphasize the theological concept of a typological relationship between the Testaments and the realization of the prophecies about the birth of the Messiah.