 He was born in Lendinara to a painter, Camillo Filippi, who had worked under Dosso Dossi.He initially likely apprenticed with his father and brother (Cesare Filippi), and is thought to have worked with them when they painted a processional standard "Gonfalone" for the "Oratorio dell'Annunziata" in Ferrara.He left Ferrara, dominated by the likes of Dosso Dossi, Il Garofalo, and Girolamo da Carpi, as a young man to find work in Rome.