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One of the great stories about the redemptive power of art can be found in Vasari�s life of Filippo Lippi. Vasari tells how Lippi was captured by Barbary pirates while out sailing off Ancona, and held as a slave in Algeria for 18 months. At his lowest ebb, Filippo Lippi plucked a charred stick from the ashes of a fire, and drew a portrait of his master on the wall�thus earning his freedom through his art.          There doesn�t seem to be any historical basis for this tale, but of course the truth of a story does not lie in factual accuracy. This episode was bound to appeal to artists themselves, and in 1819 Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret exhibited a painting based on it in the Salon de Paris. The story haunted Bergeret�s imagination, and nearly 20 years later he made an etching of the same subject, titled in the plate Philippo Lippi Esclave � Alger fait le portrait de son Ma�tre qui en r�compense lui donna sa libert�. There is also a pen-and-ink drawing of the scene in the Peabody Collectio