Masaccio

(Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone; 1401-c. 1428)

   Masaccio was born in San Giovanni Valdarno, near Florence where he is recorded as having joined the painters' guild in 1422. "Masaccio" was his nickname, a derogatory appellation that referred to his uncomely physical appearance. Giorgio Vasari, in fact, wrote that Masaccio was so completely engrossed in his art that he dedicated little time for his own grooming or the tidying of his home. Little is known of his training, but it is clear that his contemporaries Donatello and Filippo Brunelleschi were a major force in his artistic development, as was Giotto. Like Giotto, Masaccio rejected the ornamental style of the Sienese and Venetian Schools and instead opted for a more naturalistic mode of expression. From Donatello he borrowed the solidity of forms and from Brunelleschi the new classical architectural vocabulary to use in the backgrounds of his paintings. Also, Masaccio was the first to experiment with one-point linear perspective, a scientific method thought to have been developed by Brunelleschi. Masaccio's Madonna and Child with Saints (1422; Florence, Uffizi), painted for the Church of San Giovenale in Cascia di Reggello, provides an early example of his art. Here the figures occupy a believable, rational space, they are more voluminous than the figures rendered by masters from the previous century, they overlap to further enhance the sense of space, and the shading of their draperies is more emphatic than in earlier examples. Two years later, Masaccio collaborated with Masolino in the execution of the Virgin and Child with St. Anne (Florence, Uffizi), a painting that stresses Christ's genealogy by placing the figures one behind the other to form a pyramid. In c. 1425, Masaccio and Masolino again collaborated, this time in the Brancacci Chapel at Santa Maria del Carmine where they painted scenes from the life of St. Peter. In the following year, Masaccio rendered the Enthroned Virgin and Child, part of the Pisa Polyptych commissioned by Giuliano di Ser Colino degli Scarsi for Santa Maria del Carmine, at one point dismantled and its pieces scattered. In 1427, Masaccio created one of his most important masterpieces, the Holy Trinity at Santa Maria Novella. Masaccio's importance lies in the fact that he introduced new technical innovations to painting that allowed for believable renditions of space. Though he died while still in his twenties, the impact of his art was immense.