Filippo Lippi took the vows of a Carmelite monk at the monastery of St. Maria del Carmine, Florence, in 1421, and 10 years later he completed a fresco for the monastery and departed. His earliest known painting is Madonna and Child, produced in 1437. In 1452, Lippi was in Prato painting the choir for the proveditor of the cathedral. It was finished in 1464. Before it was finished, in 1452, he was appointed chaplain to the nuns of St. Niccolo de Frieri in Florence. A scandal ensued following his painting in the Pitti Palace Gallery of The Virgin. As a result, the Medici intervened and persuaded Pope Pius II to release a nun from her vows to live with Lippi as his wife.