Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement

Maybe it's hard to see it that way, but this masterpiece is very special on many different levels. It is the earliest surviving double portrait in Italy, the first to show the sitters in a domestic setting, and the first with a view onto a landscape. The two figures may be Lorenzo di Ranieri Scolari and Angiola di Bernardo Sapiti, who were married about 1439. The woman is dressed luxuriously ala francese and her sleeve is embroidered with letters spelling "faithful". She is observed by a man appearing at a window. 

Lippi had a complicate task. Italians prefered to be portrayed for the profile view and this is probably why he designed such a composition, so weird for us today. The female is situated in a domestic interior, the box-like shape with a ceiling of which are plainly adopted from depictions of the Madonna and Child. By contrast, the male stands outside the room, gazing through a lateral window opening, while a second window offers a view onto a landscape that, it has been suggested, may record property belonging to the family.