Fra Filippo Lippi (c.1406-69) was Boticelli's teacher and the court painter to the Medici in the 1450s and 1460s. Of the early Italian Renaissance artists, Masaccio's use of perspective and lighting and Alberti's theories of pictorial construction, are presented by modern art historians as paradigms of the naturalistic and "progressive" styles. Filippo is considered to be retrograde or eccentric to the extent that he diverges from their approach to spatial structure. Yet perspective was not the only important feature of early Rennaissance naturalism. Fra Filippo's has suffered particularly from this distorting approach. Filippo's spatial structures are defined largely through colour relationships, and he was a master of subjectivity. His greatness as an artist lies in the narrative brilliance of his characterizations and the plausible humanity that he brought into religious painting. Those qualities which are discernible in Filippo's "Madonna and Child with Two Angels" which can be seen in the Uffizi are important to the development of 15th century painting. The book consists of an introduction surveying Filippo's life and career, and of a catalogue of his own and his studio's works. There are two fresco cycles, in the Cathedrals of Prato and Spoleto, and about fifty works on panel involving Filippo or his studio. In addition, the book includes much unpublished documentation found in the last eighty years.