The Funeral of Saint Stephen
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
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About this painting
Stephen is not laid in a grave. Lippi puts him in the crossing of an Early Christian basilica, before an altar bare but for a cross — a deacon ordained to serve tables, laid before the table itself. Acts 8:2: devout men took order for Stephen's funeral and made great mourning over him.
Prato's Comune commissioned the cycle; into the mourners Lippi worked Pius II, portly in red, and, Vasari said, the cathedral's provost Carlo de' Medici. Stephen's left wall faces John the Baptist's across the choir, Prato's patron opposite Florence's. Queen Joanna had sold Prato to Florence in 1351.
Sources: travelingintuscany.com / busonero.it, corroborated by Comune di Prato heritage portal (po-net.prato.it) description of the scene as set in a basilica 'magnificamente scorciata' · Acts 8:2 · busonero.it: 'Santo Stefano a sinistra ... titolare del duomo e patrono di Prato; ... San Giovanni Battista a destra ... protettore di Firenze' · Web Gallery of Art, 'The Funeral of St Stephen', commentary · Web Gallery of Art, 'The Funeral of St Stephen (detail)' · Prato Turismo (official visitor authority of the Comune di Prato), 'Cathedral of S. Stefano' · Prato Turismo, 'Cattedrale di Santo Stefano' (itinerario I Lippi a Prato) · Musei Diocesani di Prato, 'Filippo Lippi' · Gallerie degli Uffizi, catalogue entry for Mantegna, 'Portrait of a Prelate (Carlo de' Medici?)' · Enciclopedia Italiana (Treccani), 'Prato in Toscana' · Acts 6, Challoner chapter argument, with Acts 6:2, 6:5, 6:6 (Douay-Rheims, Challoner) · 1 Corinthians 10:21 (Douay-Rheims, Challoner) · Acts 8:2 (Douay-Rheims, Challoner) · Visit Tuscany (Toscana Promozione Turistica, Regione Toscana), 'Filippo Lippi frescoes in the Prato Cathedral' · Roggero Roggeri, 'Enea Silvio Piccolomini. Iconografia: dipinti, miniature, sculture e medaglie dal XV al XIX secolo. Parte I, da Filippo Lippi al Sodoma', About Art Online, 6 February 2022
And devout men took order for Stephen's funeral and made great mourning over him.
Acts 8:2 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 9,108 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.