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Born: 1401
Died: 1428
Summary of Masaccio
It’s widely accepted that Masaccio was the first Renaissance artist. His life was sadly cut short at a young age, yet he left behind a body of work that had a lasting impact on Western art. During Florence’s artistic heyday in the Early Renaissance, Masaccio benefited from the nobility’s eagerness to flaunt their money and status by commissioning altarpieces and friezes for their private chapels. We know little about his personal life, but we do know that his work was unlike any other in Florence at the time, demonstrating a logical approach that would become a hallmark of the Renaissance.
It was one of the Renaissance’s most important achievements in art and architecture that linear perspective was used to create a two-dimensional sense of depth. Inspired by Filippo Brunelleschi’s architectural designs in which he found the notion of perspective, Masaccio used it to transform Western art.
Masaccio was able to achieve a level of realism in his paintings that was unmatched by any other artist of the period by incorporating architectural concepts and the study of light and form into his work. In three-dimensional space, his religious figures seem to be made of solid material. Rather of occupying an entirely different, visual plane, as in Medieval art, they are seen as an extension of the viewer’s reality, as if through a window.
It is through the realism of Masaccio’s paintings that we see not only the scientific ideas that were so important to the Renaissance, but it also brings the saints closer to the observer, humanising them and therefore changing how people saw God.
Childhood
Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone Cassai, better known as Masaccio, was born in the winter of 1401 in a little village near Florence. Both his father and mother were notaries, with Ser Giovanni di Simone Cassai being the son of an innkeeper. Even though none of their parents was an artist, Masaccio and his brother Giovanni both became painters. Despite this, their grandpa was a cabinetmaker, and the family name Cassai is derived from the word for “carpenter” in Italian. As a result of this, Giovanni was dubbed “lo Scheggia” (the splinter) and referred to as such throughout his creative career.
Early Life
As a youngster, Masaccio seemed to have a natural talent for painting. This earned him the nickname “Masaccio” since he was so uninterested in people, politics or his own looks that he was referred to as “clumsy Tom” To whom Masaccio was apprenticed is a mystery, although it is quite probable that he did so as was the norm for young painters at the period. Even a century after Giorgio Vasari’s allegation, several of Masaccio’s youthful drawings were found in his hometown, despite the fact that all of his paintings had since been destroyed.
Mid Life
When he joined the Florentine Arte dei Medici and Speziali guild in 1422, he had already established himself as an independent artist in Florence. As far back as 1412, Masaccio’s mother married a second time, and he may have moved to Florence at that time.
Until 1423, when he travelled to Rome with Masolino, an artist with whom he would partner for the rest of his life, very little is known about his life. There, he studied classical sculptures, which would become the basis for his paintings as he moved away from the Gothic style. On his return to Florence, he started working on a series of panel altar works, some alongside Masolino, for churches in the city. Masaccio was exposed to the work of painters like Brunelleschi and Donatello during this period in Florence, when the arts were flourishing. When Brunelleschi discovered linear perspective, it had a profound effect on the work of Masaccio, an architect, and Donatello’s sculpting may be seen in the “sculptural” representation of people in his mature works.
Late Life
When Masaccio and Masolino collaborated to paint the Brancacci Chapel paintings for Florence’s Santa Maria del Carmine cathedral in 1425, their increasing fame peaked. Among the most significant works of his career, these massive paintings depict scenes from the Bible that he painted to supplement those done by Masolino. Masaccio was responsible for the decorating when Masolino went to Hungary later that year. It was something he worked on for a long time, often coming to the chapel between jobs. For example, he received contracts for the fresco in the church of Santa Maria Novella during this period.
At barely 26 years old, Masaccio travelled to Rome in 1428, where he perished in the second part. His death is still shrouded in mystery, though. He was said to have been poisoned (which is not implausible considering the strong competition in the art world at that time) but many today think he died of plague, according to an overly dramatic narrative. Masaccio’s death, as Brunelleschi put it, was a “we have had a very great loss”
Massacio was one of the most prominent painters of the Early Renaissance, despite a brief career. His paintings were studied and utilised as inspiration by people in the movement following him, such as Fillipo Lippi, Fra Angelico, and Andrea del Castagno, who consider him one of the earliest Renaissance painters. Piero della Francesca, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo were all affected by his sculptural representation of the human form using linear perspective. As one of Western painting’s most influential painters, Masaccio introduced perspective and realism, which would become a hallmark of Renaissance art and remain prevalent in Western art until the late 19th century.
Masaccio’s virtuosity is shown by the fact that his impact lasted through the Renaissance and the creative revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many Bloomsbury Group artists of the early 20th century, the Brancacci Chapel was a place to investigate how light might be used to produce substantial sculptural shapes. Among the Bloomsbury Group, Duncan Grant, who spent two years in Italy between 1902 and 1903 copying Masaccio’s paintings, shows his influence the most obviously. He was also influenced by Stanley Spencer, Philip Guston, and Balthus, as well as Pittura Metafisica, an Italian forerunner to Surrealism, who admired his use of form and linear perspective and his position in their Italian aesthetic history. One of the greatest examples of this may be seen in the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, who combined Masaccio’s’sculptural shapes,’ which look to be sculptures, with one-point perspective.
Famous Art by Masaccio
San Giovenale Triptych
1422
The inscription at the bottom border of the three panels dates this to April 23rd, 1422, making it Masaccio’s first known work. A Florence family, the Vanni Castellani, commissioned the work, which was previously housed in San Lorenzo’s church before being relocated to San Giovenale. The centre panel depicts the traditional depiction of the Virgin and Child, suggesting that it was intended as an altarpiece for a church’s secondary chapel. There are two saints on either side of the altar: Saint Bartholomew and Saint Blaise on the left, and Saint Antony and Saint Juvenal (or San Giovenale) on the right.
Madonna and Child with St Anne
1424-1425
In this panel, which depicts the Virgin and Child with her mother seated behind her, Masolino is believed to have collaborated. In Florence, Giorgio Vasari claims it was originally located near to the entrance to the nuns’ lodgings in San Ambrogio church. The Virgin and her mother, St. Anne, are shown in this picture as examples of the ideal Christian lady, therefore this location is appropriate. The silk weaver Nofri Buonamici, the panel’s most probable sponsor, may be reflected in the damask cloth draped behind St. Anne.
Payment of the Tribute Money
1425-1427
The Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence has a series of frescoes showing events from the life of St. Peter painted by Masaccio and Masolino. This project had been in the works for some years when it was abandoned by Masolino, who had already begun construction on the chapel, as well as Masaccio, who died in 1428 while in Rome before Filipino Lippi finished it in 1481-1485. The frescoes that remain, despite fires and modifications by subsequent painters, are considered some of the most significant in Florence.
Expulsion from Eden
1425-1427
The Brancacci Chapel fresco is one of Masaccio’s best-known works and is part of the Brancacci Chapel cycle. When Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin, the Garden of Eden was banished from their existence.
While many of Masaccio’s other works are concerned with space and perspective, this fresco concentrates instead on the emotional weight of the situation. Adam and Eve’s expressions and postures were novel for a moment that had hitherto been shown with expressionless seriousness. This picture emphasises the human misery contained in the tale, in contrast to Masolino’s depiction of the Temptation of Adam and Eve in the same church. Academic That beauty can be found in such a bleak landscape is what Sally Munt describes as “I find in it a strange, almost uncanny hopefulness, that intimations of beauty can be seen amongst such anguish”. This picture had a significant impact on Renaissance art, leading Michelangelo to create his version of the scenario in the Sistine Chapel using a new method of expressing emotion. In the words of Giorgio Vasari, this “beautiful liveliness in the likeness of nature” was drawn from the study of ancient sculpture. Eve’s stance is based on the Venus Pudica, an unclothed lady with her hands concealing her private parts, while Adam’s torso may have been influenced by the famed Apollo Belvedere statue at the Vatican. As part of the rising humanist movement in Florence, this painting shows Masaccio’s interest in studying old artworks as well as philosophers. The people from this picture have appeared in works by contemporary artists, such as Fred Tomaselli’s Expulsion (2000).
Predella Panel, The Pisa Altarpiece
1426
In order to decorate the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa, an altarpiece called the ‘predella’ was commissioned. Only eleven of the altarpiece’s panels have been positively identified as belonging to it. This panel’s centrepiece is a representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Unborn Child. Here are two examples of martyrdom from the New Testament that are both brutal and spectacular. Gold leaf is used to distinguish each scene. St. Peter is seen on a cross on the far left. So that he wouldn’t be unjustly compared to Christ, he wanted to be crucified on the wrong side of the cross. King Herod’s troops, acting on Salome’s orders, are set to behead St. John the Baptist on the right.
The Trinity
1427-1428
Masaccio’s masterwork is this fresco, which was painted on the walls of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. An unidentified pair of people are seen kneeling in the front of the picture, having paid for it. An image of Christ’s crucifixion is shown, with the Virgin Mary and St. John standing at his feet as is typical. Though it’s been examined by experts for hundreds of years, the scene continues to be a mystery since it breaks so many Renaissance conventions. The white dove of the Holy Spirit flies between Christ’s and God’s heads, earning the picture the name “The Trinity.” Despite the fact that depicting God figuratively was not frowned upon at the period, most depictions of him took place in a non-earthly domain, such as the skies, rather than the physical church.
BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)
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- It’s widely accepted that Masaccio was the first Renaissance artist.
- His life was sadly cut short at a young age, yet he left behind a body of work that had a lasting impact on Western art.
- During Florence’s artistic heyday in the Early Renaissance, Masaccio benefited from the nobility’s eagerness to flaunt their money and status by commissioning altarpieces and friezes for their private chapels.
- We know little about his personal life, but we do know that his work was unlike any other in Florence at the time, demonstrating a logical approach that would become a hallmark of the Renaissance.
- It was one of the Renaissance’s most important achievements in art and architecture that linear perspective was used to create a two-dimensional sense of depth.
- Inspired by Filippo Brunelleschi’s architectural designs in which he found the notion of perspective, Masaccio used it to transform Western art.
- Masaccio was able to achieve a level of realism in his paintings that was unmatched by any other artist of the period by incorporating architectural concepts and the study of light and form into his work.
- In three-dimensional space, his religious figures seem to be made of solid material.
- Rather of occupying an entirely different, visual plane, as in Medieval art, they are seen as an extension of the viewer’s reality, as if through a window.
- It is through the realism of Masaccio’s paintings that we see not only the scientific ideas that were so important to the Renaissance, but it also brings the saints closer to the observer, humanising them and therefore changing how people saw God.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
