Editing Masaccio (section)

==Brancacci Chapel==
[[Image:Masaccio7.jpg|thumb|400px|''[[The Tribute Money (Masaccio)|The Tribute Money]]'', fresco in the [[Brancacci Chapel]] in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence]]
In 1424, the "duo preciso e noto" ("well and known duo") of Masaccio and Masolino was commissioned by the powerful and wealthy Felice Brancacci to execute a cycle of frescoes for the [[Brancacci Chapel]] in the church of [[Santa Maria del Carmine di Firenze|Santa Maria del Carmine]] in Florence. With the two artists probably working simultaneously, the painting began around 1425, but for unknown reasons the chapel was left unfinished, and was completed by Filippino Lippi in the 1480s. The iconography of the fresco decoration is somewhat unusual; while the majority of the frescoes represent the life of St. Peter, two scenes, on either side of the threshold of the chapel space, depict the temptation and expulsion of Adam and Eve.  As a whole, the frescoes recount the life of St Peter as if it were the story of salvation.<ref>Umberto Baldini and Ornella Casazza, ''The Brancacci Chapel'', New York, 1990; Diane Cole Ahl, "The Brancacci Chapel," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Masaccio'', ed. Diane Cole Ahl, Cambridge, 2002, 138–157; J.T. Spike, “The Brancacci Code,” in ''Watching Art: Writings in Honor of James Beck'', ed. L. Catterson and M. Zucker (Todi: Ediart, 2006), pp. 247–54.</ref> The style of Masaccio's scenes shows the influence of Giotto especially. Figures are large, heavy, and solid; emotions are expressed through faces and gestures; and there is a strong impression of naturalism throughout the paintings. Unlike Giotto, however, Masaccio uses linear and atmospheric perspective, directional light, and ''chiaroscuro'', which is the representation of form through light and color without outlines. As a result, his frescoes are even more convincingly lifelike than those of his trecento predecessor.

===Works of the chapel===
[[Image:03 2015 Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine (Firenze)-Cappella Brancacci-Adamo Eva Cacciata Paradiso terrestre-Masaccio- Photo Paolo Villa FOTO9202 tris.jpg|thumb|Masaccio's [[fresco]] of ''[[The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Masaccio)|The Expulsion]]'' (1426–1427)]]
[[Image:Masaccio-TheExpulsionOfAdamAndEveFromEden-Restoration.jpg|thumb|When it was cleaned in the 1980s, the added fig leaves were removed.]]
[[The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Masaccio)|''The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden'']], depicts a distressed [[Adam and Eve]], chased from the garden by a threatening angel.  Adam covers his entire face to express his shame, while Eve covers her breasts and groin. The fresco had a huge influence on [[Michelangelo]] and his work. Another major work is ''[[The Tribute Money (Masaccio)|The Tribute Money]]'' in which [[Jesus]] and the Apostles are depicted as neo-classical archetypes. Scholars have often noted that the shadows of the figures all fall away from the chapel window, as if the figures are lit by it; this is an added stroke of verisimilitude and further tribute to Masaccio's innovative genius. In the ''Resurrection of the Son of Theophilus'', he painted a pavement in perspective, framed by large buildings to obtain a three-dimensional space in which the figures are placed proportionate to their surroundings. In this he was a pioneer in applying the newly discovered rules of perspective.

In September 1425 Masolino left the work and went to [[Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)|Hungary]]. It is not known if this was because of money quarrels with Felice or an artistic divergence with Masaccio. It has also been supposed that Masolino planned this trip from the very beginning, and needed a close collaborator who could continue the work after his departure.  But Masaccio left the frescoes [[unfinished work|unfinished]] in 1426 in order to respond to other commissions, probably coming from the same patron. However, it has also been suggested that the declining finances of Felice Brancacci were insufficient to pay for any further work, so the painter sought work elsewhere.

[[File:Cappella brancacci, Resurrezione del figlio di Teofilo e San Pietro in cattedra (restaurato), Masaccio.jpg|thumb|400px|right|''Raising of the Son of Theophilus of Antioch'', containing self-portrait of Masaccio ''(third from right)'']]
Masaccio returned in 1427 to work again in the Carmine, beginning the ''Resurrection of the Son of Theophilus'', but apparently left it, too, unfinished, although it has been suggested that the painting was severely damaged later in the century because it had contained portraits of the Brancacci family, at that time excoriated as enemies of the [[Medici]].<ref>Casazza, Ornella. 1990. ''Masaccio and the Brancacci Chapel''. Antella, Firenze, Italy: Scala. p. 46. {{OCLC|25093965}}</ref> This painting was either restored or completed more than fifty years later by [[Filippino Lippi]].

Some of the scenes completed by Masaccio and Masolino were lost in a fire in 1771; we know about them only through Vasari's biography. The surviving parts were extensively blackened by smoke. In the twentieth century, the removal of marble slabs covering two areas of the paintings revealed the original appearance of the work.<ref>Casazza, Ornella. 1990. ''Masaccio and the Brancacci Chapel''. Antella, Firenze, Italy: Scala. p. 15. {{OCLC|25093965}}</ref>