Filippo Palizzi was born in Vasto on June 16, 1818, the fifth of thirteen children. In 1836 Filippo joined his brother Giuseppe in Naples and the following year was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. However, due to artistic differences, Filippo abandoned the Academy a few months after his admission. After leaving the Academy, he began to frequent the studio of the Abruzzese painter Giuseppe Bonolis, who directed his students to the study of reality. Dissatisfied, he undertook a personal study on the theme of "portraying animals from life". In 1839 he exhibited a painting for the first time in the biennial exhibition at the Royal Bourbon Museum, a Study of Animals.

On October 25, 1842 he undertook a long journey abroad, reaching as far as Asia Minor. After two years he returned to Naples. He became interested in the events of the Risorgimento in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies around 1848.

In the early 1850s, Filippo earned a silver medal, jointly with Achille Vertunni, from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and a salary that allowed the two painters to study in Rome.

In 1867, at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, he presented six paintings, including Dopo il diluvio, commissioned in 1861 by Vittorio Emanuele II. The work immediately achieved unexpected success. On October 24, 1881, on Morelli's proposal, he obtained the direction of the Museo Artistico Industriale in Naples. In 1891, Filippo Palizzi returned to the presidency of the Institute of Fine Arts, for a five-year term.

On September 11, 1899 he died in Naples, at the age of eighty-one.