The Funeral of Saint Stephen

Since frescoes in 15th-century Italy often presented complex narratives, details of storytelling had to be carefully worked out before beginning to paint on wet plaster. Here Fra (Father) Filippo Lippi made a preliminary plan for a composition depicting the funeral of Saint Stephen, part of his fresco cycle on the lives of Saints Stephen and John the Baptist in the cathedral of Prato. His use of the free-flowing but permanent medium of ink allows us to see today the areas where he changed his mind—such as the placement of Stephen’s head and the figure at the altar.