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| MASACCIO, Tommaso |
| one
of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, whose innovations in
tonal and linear perspective introduced the modern era of painting |
 |
 |
 |
MASACCIO, (real name Tommaso Guini), was an Italian painter born in San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy on December 21, 1401 and died in Rome in 1427 or 1428. The known facts of his life are few. In 1422, he enrolled with the guild of doctors and apothecaries, to which painters also belonged, and in 1424 he joined the painters' guild of St. Luke. He knew and was influenced by the sculptor Donatello and the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. In 1426, he painted an altarpiece for the Church of the Carmine in Pisa (since dismembered; the National Gallery in London has the central panel of the Virgin Enthroned). In July 1427, he was working in Florence with his younger brother, Giovanni. During this period he did panels for the churches of St. Ambrose and St. Ignatius (the masterly fresco of the Trinity is now in the Church of Santa Maria Novella) and his greatest work, the frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, all in Florence. In 1427 or 1428 he went to Rome, where he died sometime before November 1429. While there has been some controversy as to what part of the frescoes in the Brancacci chapel were painted by Masaccio and what part by his master, Masolino da Panicale, it is now generally believed that he worked alone on The Tribute Money, St. Peter Baptizing, St. Peter and St. John Healing the Sick, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and St. Peter Distributing Alms, St. Peter Healing the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned, begun by him, were finished by Filippino Lippi about 1485. Of all these Brancacci frescoes, The Tribute Money and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden are most frequently mentioned as Masaccio's greatest achievements. The frescoes in the Church of San Clemente in Rome, formerly attributed to him, are now believed to have been the work of Masolino.
Masaccio was highly praised by Leonardo da Vinci and Giorgio Vasari, and he
influenced the work of many painters including Michelangelo and Raphael, but
for several centuries his reputation was neglected. Today he is considered one
of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, whose innovations in tonal and
linear perspective introduced the modern era of painting. He fitted his massive
figures naturally into their surroundings, and illuminated his scenes consistently
from a single source.