Lucrezia Buti

Lucrezia Buti (born 1435) was an Italian nun who later became the lover of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi and the mother of his children.

According to the art historian, Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), while a novice or boarder there, she met the painter Fra Filippo Lippi who in 1456 had been commissioned to create a painting for its high altar.

Lippi fell in love with Buti during her sittings and caused a great scandal by kidnapping her from a procession of the Girdle of Thomas in the city and taking her to his nearby home in the piazza del Duomo.

[1] Their son became a talented artist and was among the students of Fra Filippo Lippi along with Sandro Botticelli and Francesco di Pesello (called Pesellino), who were among his most distinguished pupils.

[2] Lucrezia is thought to be the model for Lippi's Madonna and Child,[3] and for Salome in his fresco series of the Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist in the cathedral of Prato.

Madonna and Child , Filippo Lippi, (c.1456-1465), Uffizi Gallery , Florence, believed to be a portrait of Lucrezia Buti
Salome dancing at the Feast of Herod, fresco series, Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist , (c. 1456–1465)