MASACCIO

This painting is the central predella panel of the Pisa Altarpiece, directly beneath the enthroned Madonna and Child. Compared to Gentile da Fabriano’s painting of the same subject done in Florence just a few years before, Masaccio’s treatment is entirely new. Besides offering lifelike portraits of the patron and his nephew in contemporary dress at the middle right, he has given the entire scene a convincing atmosphere which surrounds the figures and the landscape. In the distance, the atmosphere breaks down the clarity of the forms resulting in an effect which is referred to as aerial perspective.

The panel is composed of two distinct scenes. However, radiographic investigation shows that the continuous landscape was later separated by the large horizontal golden band. The upper part represents the Prayer in the Garden, while the lower part gives one of the first representations of Penitent St Jerome.

On February 19th 1426 Masaccio agreed to paint an altarpiece for a chapel in the church of the Carmine in Pisa for the sum of 80 florins. On December 26th of that year the work must have been already completed since payment for it is recorded on this date. Vasari gave a detailed description of the work which was the basis for art critics for the attempt at reconstruction and for the recovery and identification of the work which was dismantled and dispersed in the 18th century. Only eleven pieces have so far come to light and they are not sufficient to enable a reliable reconstruction of the whole work. The Crucifixion is one of the eleven panels (one of the top panels) connected with the Pisa Polyptych.

As in the main panel, the Gothic arch determines the pictorial frame, the upward stress of which Masaccio modifies in his composition. To counter the vertical trust imposed by the arch, Masaccio creates a strong horizontal effect with the rather exaggerated extension of the arms of Christ on the cross. Although Masaccio still uses the gilt background for his representation, the atmospheric effects remain hauntingly convincing.

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This painting is one of predella panels of the Pisa Altarpiece. This subject had presented difficulties for artists because St Peter, to avoid irreverent comparison with Christ, had insisted on being crucified upside down. Masaccio meets the problem by underscoring it, the diagonals of Peter’s legs are repeated in the shapes of the two pylons, which are based on the ancient Roman Pyramid of Gaius Cestius. Between the pyramids, the cross is locked into the composition. Within the small remaining space the executioners loom toward us with tremendous force as they hammer in the nails. Peter’s halo, upside down, is shown in perfect foreshortening.

Masaccio’s frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel in Florence’s Santa Maria del Carmine mark a milestone in the history of wall painting. They enhance Giottesque traditions of naturalism with new vitality, not merely on their formal properties of space and volume, but also in the psychological intensity that permeates the narrative.

The following frescoes can be seen in this view:

Expulsion from the Garden (Masaccio)

Tribute Money (Masaccio)

St Peter Preaching (Masolino)

St Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow (Masaccio)

Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned (Masaccio and Filippino Lippi)

St Paul Visiting St Peter in Prison (Filippino Lippi)

Masaccio’s frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel in Florence’s Santa Maria del Carmine mark a milestone in the history of wall painting. They enhance Giottesque traditions of naturalism with new vitality, not merely on their formal properties of space and volume, but also in the psychological intensity that permeates the narrative.

The following frescoes can be seen in this view:

Tribute Money (Masaccio)

Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned (Masaccio and Filippino Lippi)

Masaccio’s frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel in Florence’s Santa Maria del Carmine mark a milestone in the history of wall painting. They enhance Giottesque traditions of naturalism with new vitality, not merely on their formal properties of space and volume, but also in the psychological intensity that permeates the narrative.

The following frescoes can be seen in this view:

Temptation (Masolino)

Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabitha (Masolino)

Baptism of the Neophytes (Masaccio)

Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias (Masaccio)

Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St Peter (Filippino Lippi)

Peter Being Freed from Prison (Filippino Lippi)

In Florence the new age of the Renaissance began in painting with a rather subdued work, devoid of any rhetoric: the Madonna and Child with St Anne executed by Masolino and Masaccio in 1424.

The structure of this work is simple yet extraordinarily monumental. The succession of planes is compact and follows an upward direction, thus creating a pyramid shape. The composition can certainly attributed to Masaccio who executed only the Madonna and Child and the two angels (the upper right-hand one, and the one looking down from on high). A sense of grave dignity and power emanates from the faces, from the expressions and from the solidity of the bodies.

Despite the presence of a strong chiaroscuro, the painting is bright due to the use of a dense colour paste which absorbs the light and so heightens the tones. The light comes very distinctly from the left, and the figure of the Madonna casts a light but very visible shadow on the floor. The base and the throne are drawn according to precise points of reference which produce the effect of perspective.

This altarpiece depicting St Anne, Madonna and Child with five angels (called Sant’Anna Metterza) was originally painted for the Sant’Ambrogio Church in Florence. Deriving from the Tuscan dialect of the 13th and 14th centuries, the term Metterza means “she is in the third position”, referring to such iconography where Anna, being mother and grandmother of Christ, appears in third position.

In 1940 art critic Roberto Longhi attributed to Masolino the execution of part of the painting that previously was ascribed in its entirety to Masaccio by Vasari.

Vasari wrote: “Masaccio can be given the credit for originating a new style of painting … he produced work that is living, realistic, and natural.”

Masaccio’s innovations were not technical, for his work on panel uses traditional materials and methods, as do his paintings in fresco. Inspired by the ideals of Giotto, by contemporary interest in ancient Roman remains, by the recent experiments of his friends the architect-sculptor Brunelleschi and the sculptor Donatello, he relied above all on observation of nature. His study of perspective was allied to an equally profound analysis of light. The lutes of the two angels at the Virgin’s feet are demonstrations, obviously studied from the model, of the joint effect of foreshortening and directional illumination. The peg box of the instrument on the right faces inwards, the other is turned towards us. The strong light shining from the upper left helps define rounded and flat surfaces and right angles, and the shadows and penumbras cast by the angels’ hands look so natural that we almost take them for granted.

The painting is the central panel of a large, 19 pieces winged altar executed for a chapel of the Carmelite Church in Pisa. Ten other panels of the altarpiece are in various museums. The painting has been cut down at the base, and has lost its original frame, although the arch at the top, firmly locating the throne behind it, is Masaccio’s. The silver-leaf backing of the Virgin’s red robe has tarnished, the red itself has darkened, and the paint surface is abraded and disfigured, revealing the green undermodelling of the Virgin’s face; the original effect would have been much more decorative. Yet decoration could never have been Masaccio’s main interest. The Virgin, as voluminous as a Roman statue, sits on a massive throne incorporating the three orders of columns of Roman architecture. The wavy pattern at the base is copied from Roman sarcophagi. The Child himself, naked and plump like a sculpted Roman putto, wears an elliptical halo on his head; its foreshortening defines his position on his mother’s lap.

Masaccio’s egg tempera medium is deficient, when compared to contemporary Netherlandish oil paintings, in its ability to differentiate texture and lustre. But his grave vision of the structure of things seems all the weightier for lacking surface blandishments.

The two heads that have been discovered in the jambs of the original two-light window behind the altar are supposed to be the work of two artists: the Iefthand one is by Masolino, the righthand one (this picture) by Masaccio, for the former is painted with a clearly marked outline and the latter is modelled directly with the use of light. But there are many scholars who disagree and believe that both heads are by Masolino.

And the foliage pattern decorations that cover the jambs also appear to be the work of two different artists: the floral ornamentations above the two heads and the motif that frames the scene at the top, just under the window sill, are to be attributed to Masolino, whereas the decorations below the two medallions are more probably the work of Masaccio. But there is one scene that everyone agrees is by Masaccio: there are only two small fragments left of it, above the altar, but it was originally the scene of the Crucifixion of Peter.

This round plate with a Nativity on the front and a putto and small dog on the back dates from Masaccio’s last period in Florence, before he went to Rome. It was defined by experts as the first Renaissance tondo, and they drew attention to the important innovations and the corect architectural perspective reflecting a greater knowledge and affirmation of the classicism of Brunelleschi. Here the Florentine idiom is evident in the colour sequences of the geometrical patterns on the walls of the building and in the court. This is in perfect harmony, and was to appear again inthe stories of Fra Angelico and the architecture of Michelozzo in San Marco.

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The two scenes represented on this panel are the Crucifixion of St Peter, and the Beheading of St John the Baptist.

The two scenes represented on this panel are St Julian Slaying His Parents, and St Nicholas saving Three Sisters from Prostitution.

The painting is in a poor state of conservation, the colours have altered dramatically. However, the portrait has an extraordinary presence. The face, defined by its sharp contour, is modeled like sculpture. The three-dimensional effect of the mazzocchio (the turban) is emphasized by being cut at the right edge of the picture. The portrait can be compared with various portraits by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, especially the bystanders in the scene of St Peter preaching. This comparison points to a date about 1426-27, making this panel the earliest surviving independent portrait in fifteenth-century Florence.

This scene illustrates the miracle that Peter performed after he was released from prison, thanks to Paul’s intercession. According to the account in the Golden Legend, once out of prison, Peter was taken to the tomb of the son of Theophilus, Prefect of Antioch. Here St Peter immediately resurrected the young man who had been dead for fourteen years. As a result, Theophilus, the entire population of Antioch and many others were converted to the faith; they built a magnificent church and in the centre of the church a chair for Peter, so that he could sit during his sermons and be heard and seen by all. Peter sat in the chair for seven years; then he went to Rome and for twenty-five years sat on the papal throne, the cathedra, in Rome.

Masaccio sets the scene in a contemporary church, with contemporary ecclesiastical figures (actually the Carmelite friars from Santa Maria del Carmine) and a congregation that includes a self-portrait and portraits of Masolino, Leon Battista Alberti, Brunelleschi.

Vasari, in his Life of Masaccio, mentions the work of Filippino, but later chroniclers refer to all the frescoes in the chapel as by Masaccio. In the 19th century it was once again pointed out the work of Filippino, distinguishing it from that of Masaccio; and since then critics have been in almost total agreement with his theory.

Scholars have suggested that Filippino was commissioned to complete the work that Masaccio had left unfinished or to repair sections which been damaged or destroyed because they depicted characters that were enemies of the Medici, like the Brancacci. There is no doubt that the Brancacci family was subjected to something similar to a “damnatio memoriae” after they had been declared enemies of the people and exiled.

Vasari had already identified a number of contemporary figures in those painted by Filippino: the resurrected youth was supposedly a portrait of the painter Francesco Granacci, at that time hardly more than a boy; “and also the knight Messer Tommaso Soderini, Piero Guicciardini, the father of Messer Francesco who wrote the Histories, Piero del Pugliese and the poet Luigi Pulci.”

Studies of the possible portraits and of the iconography of the fresco confirmed the identifications made by Vasari and suggests others, presumably already planned in Masaccio’s original sinopia, indicating that the fresco was intended to convey a political message: the Carmelite monk is a portrait of Cardinal Branda Castiglione; Theophilus is Gian Galeazzo Visconti; the man sitting at Theophilus’s feet is Coluccio Salutati. And the four men standing at the far right are, starting from the right, Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Masaccio and Masolino.

In this fresco contemporary Carmelites and Florentines are integrated among the generic types who witness St Peter’s miracles.

This is the first original work by Masaccio. It is dated along the bottom with the inscription in modern humanist letters, the first in Europe not in Gothic characters: ANNO DOMINI MCCCCXXII A DI VENTITRE D’AP(RILE).

The represented saints are Sts Bartholomew and Biaggio to the left, Sts Giovenale and Anthony Abbot to the right.

In 1478 Masaccio left Florence for Rome to work on the polyptych in Santa Maria Maggiore, interrupting the work on the Brancacci Chapel, but he only had time to begin the left hand side with the panel of St Jerome and St John the Baptist before he died aged only 27.

Once again Masaccio and Masolino worked together, but this time Masolino had to finish the job alone. The polyptych is no longer in its original place. The panels making up the front side were separated from the back ones. Although in the 17th century the six major panels were still in Rome in Palazzo Farnese, in the 18th century they were dispersed. The other five panels - all Masolino’s works - are in London, Naples and Philadelphia. This panel is the only certain record left to us of Masaccio’s activities in Rome.

In 1426 Masaccio agreed to paint an altarpiece for a chapel in the church of the Carmine in Pisa. On December 26th of that year the work must have been completed since payment for it is recorded on this day. The altarpiece (now referred to as the Pisa Polyptych) was dismantled and dispersed in the 18th century. Attempts at reconstructing it was based on a detailed description given by Vasari in 1568. The attempts were only partially succesful, only eleven pieces came to light and they are not sufficient to enable a reliable reconstruction.

The representation of St Paul is the only piece left in the city for which it was painted.

The detail shows the self-portrait of Masaccio in a grouping of contemporary portraits next to St Peter Enthroned.

In the Acts of the Apostles (5: 12-14) this episode is recounted immediately after the story of Ananias, illustrated in the fresco to the right.

Scholars have never doubted that this scene is entirely by Masaccio. Starting with Vasari (1568), who used the man with the hood as the portrait of Masolino he put on the frontispiece of his biography of the artist, all later scholars have tried to identify the contemporary characters portrayed in the scene. It was noticed that the bearded man holding his hands together in prayer is the same person as one of the Magi in the predella of the Pisa Polyptych, now in Berlin; furthermoree it has been suggested that it may be a portrait of Donatello, while others think that Donatello is the old man with a beard between St Peter and St John. According to another view this character is Giovanni, nicknamed Lo Scheggia, Masaccio’s brother; while some believe that he is a self-portrait.

The removal of the altar has uncovered a section of the painting, at the far right, which is of fundamental importance in understanding the episode: this section includes the facade of a church, a bell tower, a stretch of blue sky and a column with a Corinthian capital behind St John. Also extremely important is the way Masaccio conceived the right-hand margin of the composition. To give the space a more regular geometrical construction, Masaccio has created “a complex play of optical effects and of perspective, as we can see in the lower section of the window jamb, where he has solved graphically an architectural problem, pictorially adjusting the faulty plumb-line of the edge of the jamb and the end wall; he makes the story, and therefore some of the background constructions, continue on the jamb.”

The street, depicted in accurate perspective, is lined with typically mediaeval Florentine houses; in fact, the scene appears to be set near San Felice in Piazza, which had a commemorative column standing in front of it. But the splendid palace in rusticated stone looks like Palazzo Vecchio in the lower section (the high socle that we can still see on the facade along Via della Ninna, with the small built-in door), although it is much more similar to Palazzo Pitti in the upper part (the windows with their rusticated stone frames). And in some details, such as the exact geometrical scansion of the ashlars, it is an anticipation of later facades, first and foremost Palazzo Antinori.

Compared to the situation before the recent cleaning, this is the fresco that appears to have benefitted the most from the operation: the splendid colour tones have been rediscovered, as well as the lighting and the draughtsmanship, justifying the fact that this fresco has always been considered a work of unparalleled beauty. Vasari wrote: “ … a nude trembling because of the cold, amongst the other neophytes, executed with such fine relief and gentle manner, that it is highly praised and admired by all artists, ancient and modern.”

Behind this nude, there is another neophyte still fully clothed, in a red and green iridescent cloak. The execution of this figure displays such skill and a sure hand, as well as such a novel pictorial technique, that it almost seems to herald the art of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

The cold, flowing water of the river presses against the legs of the kneeling neophyte; the water that Peter pours from the bowl, with a gesture rather like that of a farmer sowing his seeds, splashes onto the man’s head, drenching his hair and dribbling off in rivulets. Again, as it falls into the river, it splashes and forms little bubbles. These realistic details are not fully visible from the ground.

In the past several scholars have suggested that Masaccio must have been helped in this fresco by Masolino or Filippino Lippi (e.g. the head of St Peter, the landscape). However, after the restoration there are no doubts that the entire scene is by Masaccio.

This episode is taken from the account in the Acts of the Apostles (4: 32-37 and 5:1-11) : “For as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need….But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?… why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost.”

Masaccio brings together the two moments of the story: Peter distributing the donations that have been presented to the Apostles and the death of Ananias, whose body lies on the ground at his feet. The scene takes place in a setting of great solemnity, and the classical composition is constructed around opposing groups of characters.

No scholar has ever doubted that the entire scene is by Masaccio, except for minor cases of details having been retouched, such as certain parts of Ananias’s body, small sections to the far left where the colour had come off, and even tiny areas on St Peter himself.

The recent restoration has provided us with interesting information: for example, we can now see that there are several details that are not the work of Masaccio, such as St John’s pink cloak and his tunic, and Ananias’s hands. It was suggested that all these elements were repainted by Filippino Lippi, all in one day’s work, over Masaccio’s original fresco.

As well as a reference to salvation through the faith, this fresco has also been interpretedas another statement in favour of the institution of the Catasto, for the scene describes both a new measure guaranteeing greater equality among the population and the divine punishment of those who make false declarations. And it has also been suggested that the fresco contains a reference to the family who commissioned the cycle: the man kneeling behind St Peter’s arm has been identified as Cardinal Rinaldo Brancacci, or alternatively as Cardinal Tommaso Brancacci.

Due to the interference of the altar and marble balustrade set up in the l8th century, no scholar had been able to notice that the two episodes on the end wall are ideally part of a single composition, although they are intended to be seen from different viewpoints: the Distribution of Alms along the corner axis of the building in the centre, from a position to the right of the entrance, while the scene of Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow is intended to be viewed from the middle of the chapel, from fairly close up. The connection between the two scenes is further emphasized by the fact that on the window side neither has pilaster strips framing the outer edge. The original two-light window, so narrow and tall, did not really interrupt the continuity of the wall space: on the contrary, its concave surface provided an ideal connection with the space outside, not as a further background element, but rather as a real source of light, enhancing the three-dimensional features of the characters and contributing to the contrast between light and dark areas.

This fresco was cut at the top during the 18th century architectural alterations. This is one of the frescoes in the chapel which has suffered the greatest damage, for the blue of the sky has been lost.

The scene has been compared to Masolino’s fresco of the Temptation on the opposite wall. Masaccio’s concrete and dramatic portrayal of the figures, his truly innovative Renaissance spirit, stand in striking contrast to Masolino’s late Gothic scene, lacking in psychological depth. In Masaccio’s painting man, although a sinner, has not lost his dignity: he appears neither debased nor degraded, and the beauty of his body is a blend of classical archetypes and innovative forms of expression.

As far as Eve is concerned, one cannot help thinking of earlier interpretations of the Graeco-Roman “Venus Pudica” in 14th century (e.g. by Nicola Pisano). But Masaccio’s Eve is only similar to them in her gesture, because her body expresses dramaticaly all the suffering in the world. Scholars have also pointed out the likely precedents for the figure of Adam (e.g. classical models such as Laocoon and Marsyas).

And yet, all these borrowings from classical and more recent art were then used by Masaccio in a very personal way, to build up a totally original end product which must have truly impressed his contemporaries.

The reproduction presented here was made before a recent restoration during which the leaves - added in the 17th century to conceal the nudity of Adam and Eve - were removed.

The scene illustrates the miracle that Peter performed after he was released from prison. Once out of prison, Peter was taken to the tomb of the son of Theophilus, Prefect of Antioch. Here St Peter immediately resurrected the young man who had been dead for fourteen years. As a result, Theophilus and the entire population of Antioch were converted to the faith; they built a magnificent church and in the centre of the church a chair for Peter, so that he could sit during his sermons and seen by all.

The episode depicts the arrival in Capernaum of Jesus and the Apostles, based on the account given in Matthew’s Gospel. Masaccio has included the three different moments of the story in the same scene: the tax collector’s request, with Jesus’s immediate response indicating to Peter how to find the money necessary, is illustrated in the centre; Peter catching the fish in Lake Genezaret and extracting the coin is shown to the left; and, to the right, Peter hands the tribute money to the tax collector in front of his house. This episode, stressing the legitimacy of the tax collector’s request, has been interpreted as a reference to the lively controversy in Florence at the time on the proposed tax reform; the controversy was finally settled in 1427 with the institution of an official tax register, which allowed a much fairer system of taxation in the city. There are other references and allusions which have been pointed out by scholars.

Ever since the earliest scholars began writing about this fresco they showed special interest in the realistic details, which they noticed and pointed out despite the disappearence of the colour caused by the lampblack and the thick gluey substance that misguided restorers repeatedly applied to the surface of the frescoes over the centuries. Today it has finally become easier to appreciate the wealth of fascinating details, thanks to the recent restoration: Peter’s fishing rod, the large open mouth of the fish he has caught, described down to the smallest details, the transparent water of the lake and the circular ripples spreading outwards, toward the banks.

The awareness that they are about to witness an extraordinary event creates in the characters an atmosphere of expectation. Behind the group of people we can see a sloping mountainous landscape, with a variety of colours that range from dark green in the foreground to the white snow in the background, ending in a luminous blue sky streaked with white clouds painted in perfect perspective. The hills and the mountains that rise out from the plains, dotted with farmhouses, trees and hedges, have an entirely new and earthy concreteness: a perfect use of linear perspective, which will be taken up by Paolo Uccello, Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca.

The figures are arranged according to horizontal lines, but the overall disposition is circular: this semicircular pattern was of classical origin (Socrates and his disciples), although it was later adopted by early Christian art (Jesus and the Apostles), and interpreted by the first Renaissance artists, such as Brunelleschi, as the geometric pattern symbolizing the perfection of the circle.

The characters are entirely classical: dressed in the Greek fashion, with tunics tied at the waist and cloaks wrapped over their left shoulder, around the back, and clasped at the front, below their left forearm. And even Peter’s stance, as he extracts the coin from the fish’s mouth, with his right leg bent and his left one outstretched, is reminiscent of postures of many statues by Greek artists, as well as reliefs on Etruscan funerary urns and Roman carvings.

The detail shows the head of St Peter.

This is the most famous work of Masaccio beside the frescoes in the Cappelle Brancacci. There are various opinions as to exactly when this fresco was painted between 1425 and 1428. It was described in detail by Vasari in 1568, who emphasized the virtuosity of the “trompe l’oeil” in the architectural structure of the painting: “a barrel vault drawn in perspective, and divided into squares with rosettes which diminish and are foreshortened so well that there seems to be a hole in the wall.”

Only two years after Vasari’s book was published, the erection of a stone altar caused the fresco to be covered up by a panel of the Madonna of the Rosary painted by Vasari himself. Thus the fresco remained unknown for further generations from 1570 to 1861 when owing to the removal of the 16th century altar it was again uncovered. After being removed and placed on the internal facade of the church between the left and the central doors, it was put back in its original position in 1952, as a result of the discovery, beneath the 19th century neo-Gothic altar, of the lower section of the fresco with Adam’s skeleton and the painted altar table, once part of the whole work.

The reconstructed work was taken up by critics as the symbol and revelation of Brunelleschi’s principles in architecture and the use of perspective, to the point that some believed Brunelleschi to have had a direct hand in the work.

The most likely interpretation of the Trinity is that the painting alludes to the traditional medieval double chapel of Golgotha, with Adam’s tomb in the lower part (the skeleton) and the Crucifixion in the upper part. But it can also assume the significance of the journey the human spirit must undertake to reach salvation, rising from the earthly life (the corruptible body) through prayer (the two petitioners) and the intercession of the Virgin and saints (John the Evangelist) to the Trinity.

A close-up view of the skeleton in the sarcophagus also revealed the ancient warning, in clear letters: I WAS WHAT YOU ARE AND WHAT I AM YOU SHALL BE.

The detail shows the figure of the Virgin.

The detail shows the figure of Saint John the Evangelist.

The panels represent St Jerome and St Augustine from the frame of the Pisa Altarpiece.

The panels represent two Carmelite saints from the frame of the Pisa Altarpiece.

The chapel in the right-hand arm of the transpt in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine is consacrated to the Madonna del Popolo, and a painting of the Virgin stands on the altar. The patrons of the chapel was the Brancacci family, from the second half of the 14th century until 1780. Felice Brancacci was the patron of the chapel from 1422 till 1436. He was a rich and powerful man and he commissioned the fresco decoration of the chapel in 1423 shortly after he returned from Cairo where he had been sent as Florentine Ambassador. It is assumed that work on the frescoes began in 1424, at a time when Masaccio and Masolino were working together, and that it continued until 1427 or 1428, when Masaccio set off for Rome, leaving the fresco cycle unfinished.

The appearence of the chapel today is the result of alterations begun immediately after Felice Brancacci fell out of favour; he was exiled in 1435 and declared a rebel in 1458. Further changes were carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Originally the chapel was cross-vaulted and lit by a very tall and narrow two-light window; the last of the stories from the life of St Peter, his Crucifixion, was probably painted on the wall below the window, but this fresco was destroyed soon after Brancacci was declared a rebel so as to cancel all traces of a patron who had become politically embarassing. The chapel, formerly the chapel of St Peter, was reconsacrated to the Madonna del Popolo. It appears that Felice Brancacci was subjected to an operation of “damnatio memoriae”, for all the portrayals of people connected to the Brancacci family were eliminated from Masaccio’s fresco of the “Raising of the Son of Theophilus”. The scene was then restored in 1481-82 by Filippino Lippi, who also completed the cycle.

After the chapel was reconsacrated to the Virgin a number of votive lamps were installed: the lampblack they produced coated the surface of the frescoes, causing such damage that as early as the second half of the 16th century they had to be cleaned.

In 1670 further alterations were carried out: the two levels of frescoes were divided by four sculptures set in carved and gilded wooden frames. It was probably at this time that the leaves were added to conceal the nudity of Adam and Eve in the two frescoes, Masolino’s Temptation and Masaccio’s Expulsion from the Garden. This was probably conceived during the reign of the bigoted Cosimo III.

After several events, including a fire in 1771, a restoration combined with a thorough scientific investigation in the last decades brought the chapel to the state in which we can visit it nowadays.

The fresco cycle, with the exception of the first two, tells the story of St Peter, as follows:

Temptation (Masolino)

Expulsion from the Garden (Masaccio)

Tribute Money (Masaccio)

Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabitha (Masolino)

St Peter Preaching (Masolino)

Baptism of the Neophytes (Masaccio)

St Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow (Masaccio)

Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias (Masaccio)

Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned (Masaccio and Filippino Lippi)

Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St Peter (Filippino Lippi)

St Paul Visiting St Peter in Prison (Filippino Lippi)

Peter Being Freed from Prison (Filippino Lippi)

Fire raged through the church on January 29, 1771, destroying most of its chapels and their frescoes. The Brancacci Chapel was spared somewhat, and at least it could be restored. Yet a new altar was installed at that time. Traces of the original painting was discovered behind the altar in 11932, and it was proposed that the original window and its framing be uncovered. This was only accomplished during the most recent restoration, at which time the sinopias on the altar wall were exposed.

The picture shows the view of the chapel before this restoration.