The Tribute Money, fresco by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel.
The Brancacci Chapel (in Italian, "Cappella dei Brancacci") is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance"[1] for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Felice Brancacci and begun in 1422. The paintings were executed over the years 1425 to 1427. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.
The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423.[2] Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel. Masolino's associate, 21-year-old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student. However, Masaccio was called to Rome before he could finish the chapel, and died in Rome at the age of 27. Portions of the chapel were completed later by Filippino Lippi. During the Baroque period some of the paintings were seen as unfashionable and a tomb was placed in front of them.
The paintings
Schematics of the Brancacci Chapel paintings.
In his frescos, Masaccio carries out a radical break from the medieval pictorial tradition, by adhering to the new Renaissanceperspectival conception of space. Thus, perspective and light create deep spaces where volumetrically constructed figures move in a strongly individualised human dimension. Masaccio therefore continues on Giotto's path, detaching himself from a symbolic vision of man and propounding a greater realistic painting.[3] The cycle from the life of Saint Peter was commissioned as patron saint from Pietro Brancacci, the original owner of the chapel.[4]
The paintings are explained below in their narrative order.
In contrast with Masaccio's Expulsion, this is a serene and innocent raffiguration.
The cycle begins with this painting by Masolino, placed on the higher rectangle of the arch delimiting the Chapel, within the pillar thickness. This scene and the opposite one (the Expulsion) are the premises to the story narrated in the frescos, showing the moment in which humans severed their union with God, later reconciled by Christ with Peter's mediation.
The painting shows Adam standing near Eve: they look at each other with measured postures, as she prepares to bite on the apple, just offered to her by the serpent near her arm around the tree. The snake has a head with thick blond hair, much idealised. The scene is aulic in its presentation, with gestures and style conveying tones of late International Gothic. Light, which models the figures without sharp angles, is soft and embracing; the dark background makes the body stand out in their sensual plasticity, almost suspended in space.
The Expulsion from the Garden of EdenBefore and after restoration
Masaccio's masterpiece Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is the first fresco on the upper part of the chapel, on the left wall, just at the left of the Tribute Money. It is famous for its vivid energy and unprecedented emotional realism. It contrasts dramatically with Masolino's delicate and decorative image of Adam and Eve before the fall, painted on the opposite wall. It presents a dramatic intensity, with an armed angel who hovers over Adam and Eve indicating the way out of the Garden of Eden: the crying sinners leave at their backs the gates of Paradise.
This work represents a neat separation from the past International Gothic style; Masolino's serene composures are also left behind, and the two biblical progenitors are portrayed in dark desperation, weighed down under the angel's stern sight, who, with his unsheathed sword, forcibly expels them, with such a tension never seen before in painting. Gestures are eloquent enough: on exiting Paradise's Gates, from where some divine rays are shooting forward, Adam covers his face in desperation and guilt; Eve covers her nudity with shame and cries out, with a pained face. The bodies' dynamism, especially Adam's, gives an unprecedented passion to the figures, firmly planted on ground and projecting shadows from the violent light modelling them. Many are the details which increase the emotional drama: Adam's damp and sticky hair (on Earth, he'll struggle with hard labour and dirt), the angel's posture, foreshortened as if diving down from above. Eve's position is from an ancient representation, that of Venus Pudica (modest Venus). The foliage covering the couple's nudities was removed during a restoration in 1990.[5]
In the left lunette, destroyed in 1746-48, Masolino had painted the Calling of Peter and Andrew, or Vocation, known thanks to some indications by past witnesses such as Vasari, Bocchi and Baldinucci. Roberto Longhi first identified an image of this lost fresco in a later drawing, which does not conform to the lunette's upper curvature, but appears today as a very probable hypothesis. In this scene, Masolino had divided his composition into two expanses, of sea and sky.
La Navicella
The opposite lunette housed the fresco of the Navicella, a traditional title for the scene where Christ, walking on water, rescues Peter from the surging waves of a storm and pulls him aboard the boat. This lunette again proposed a marine setting, on balance with the opposite scene and thus creating a sort of parable of Creation: from the skies of the Evangelists in the vault, to the seas of the upper register, to the lands and towns of the middle and lower registers, precisely like in Genesis. In a way, the viewer's sight shifts from Paradise to the terrene world in a consequential manner. Sources attribute this lunette to Masolino, but considering the alternating turns taken by the two artists on the scaffolding, some propound for a Masaccio fresco.[6]
Peter's Repentance is found in the left semi-lunette of the upper register, where a very schematic preparatory drawing of the sinopia[7] was hosted. The scene was attributed to Masaccio, on the basis of its greater incisiveness in the treatment as against Masolino's work.
The most famous painting in the chapel is Tribute Money, on the upper right wall, with figures of Jesus and Peter shown in a three part narrative. The painting, largely attributed to Masaccio, represents the story of Peter and the tax collector from Matthew 17:24–27. The left side shows Peter getting a coin from the mouth of a fish and the right side shows Peter paying his taxes. The whole appears to be related to the establishment of the Catasto, the first income tax in Florence, in the time the painting was being executed.[8]
The miracle is not represented in a hagiographic key, but as a human occurrence that posits a divine decision: a historical event, then, with an explicit and indubitable moral meaning. On the narrational plane, the Tribute is developed in three stages: in the central part, Christ, from whom the tax collector asks a tribute for the Temple, orders Peter to go and fetch a coin from the mouth of the first fish he can catch; on the left, Peter, squatting on the shore, takes the coin from the fish; on the right, Peter tenders the coin to the tax collector. The three stages unite and the temporal sequences are expressed in spatial measures. The absence of a chronological scansion in the narrative, is to be sought in the fact that the painting's salient motif is not so much the miracle, as the actuation of the Divine Will, expressed by Jesus' the imperative gesture. His will becomes Peter's will who, by repeating his Lord's gesture, simultaneously indicates the fulfillment of Christ's will. The apostles' solidarity is shown by their serrated grouping around Jesus, as if to form a ring, a "coliseum of men".[9] However, the very task is given to Peter: he alone will have to deal with mundane institutions. The portico's pillar becomes a symbolic element of separation between the grouped apostles and the conclusive delivery of tribute to the tax collector on Peter's part.
In the central group, the transverse directions formed by Christ's gesture with his right arm – replicated by that of Peter and, in opposite, by the turned collector – cross with those formed by the gestures of the right group, emphasizing escape points placed in the deepest space.[10]
Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabitha
The upper scene on the right wall shows, on the left side, the Healing of the Cripple and, on the right side, the Raising of Tabitha. The fresco is generally attributed to Masolino,[11] although Masaccio's hand has been discovered by some scholars. The scene shows two different episodes, with St. Peter appearing in both of them enclosed in a scenario of a typical Tuscan city of the 15th century depicted according to the strict rules of central perspective. The latter is generally regarded as Masaccio's main contribution, whereas the two central figures show Gothic influences.
On the upper left wall one can see St Peter Preaching by Masolino, completed in eight days. Peter is shown, with an expressive gesture, preaching in front of a crowd. The people in the group have many and varied demeanours, from the sweet attention of the veiled nun in the foreground, to the sleepiness of both the girl behind her and the bearded old man, to the fear of the woman at back, whose worried eyes only can be seen. Mountains seem to continue from the preceding scene, with a spatial unity that was one of Masaccio trademarks. The three heads behind St Peter are probably portraits of contemporary people, same as the two friars on the right: all were formerly attributed to Masaccio.[12]
The whole composition presents details of astounding realism: the trembling neophyte, the water droplets from the baptised hair, the white sheet being removed in the background. Chromatic effects of "cangiantismo",[13] where drapery is modelled using contrasting colours to create an effect that simulates cangiante textiles, is achieved by Masaccio through a pictorial technique based on the juxtaposition of complementary colours, later reprised by Michelangelo.[14]
St Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow
St Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow, by Masaccio.
The picture's attribution to Masaccio is based in on the perspective structure used to create the street setting and the craggy naturalism of the physiognomies of the old man and the cripple. According to Federico Zeri, Masaccio's brother, the painter Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi, known as Lo Scheggia, may have served as the model for the apostle John and the old bearded man in the background is a possible portrait of Donatello.[15]
The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias
The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias, by Masaccio.
According to the narrative in Acts 4:32;5:1–11, each Christian, after selling their own possessions, would bring the proceeds to the apostles, who distributed to everyone according to need. Only Ananias "kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet." Severely reprimanded by Peter, he fell to the ground and died. The composition concentrates on the moment in which Ananias lies on the ground, whilst the woman with child receives alms from Peter, accompanied by John. The compositional structure is quite tight and emotional, involving the viewer in the heart of the event.[16]
Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned
Lower left wall, by Masaccio, completed by Filippino Lippi approximately fifty years later.
Filippino composed the five bystanders on the left, the Carmelites' drapery and the central part of St. Peter's arm in the "enthroned" representation. According to the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) by Jacobus de Voragine, after release from prison, St. Peter resuscitates, with St Paul's assistance, Theophilus's son, who had died fourteen years before.[17] So, people venerated St Peter and erected a new church to him, where he is enthroned so as to be revered and prayed by all.[18] However, the true meaning of this fresco rests with the politics of the time: that is, in the conflict between Florence and the Duchy of Milan.[19]
Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned, by Masaccio.
There is a precise iconographic resemblance between Theophilus (seated on the left, in an elevated position within a niche) and Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Florence's bitter enemy. The latter was a feared tyrant, whose thirst for power pushed him to start a war with Florence, almost destroying its freedom. Memory of this episode returned in all its crude vividness, when Florence had to confront a dispute with Filippo Maria Visconti, Gian Galeazzo's son. The figure sitting on Theophilus' (i.e., Gian Galeazzo's) right would be the Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati, author of an invective against the Lombard lord. St Peter's presence, therefore, symbolizes the mediating role of the Church in the person of Pope Martin V, to sedate the conflict between Milan and Florence. At the extreme right, a group of four bystanders should personify Masaccio (looking away from the painting), Masolino (the shortest one), Leon Battista Alberti (in the foreground); and Filippo Brunelleschi (the last). The frequent use of portraiture makes the imaginary world of painting and the viewer's personal experience converge. For Masaccio's contemporaries it should have been easier to read this scene as a reflection of themselves and their own social realities. The fresco's figures populate a dilated space of their own world and have a natural demeanor: they stretch their necks to see better, they look over their neighbour's shoulder, gesticulate, observe, and gossip about the event with the next bystander.[20]
The cycle continues towards the left, on the pillar, in the lower register, with the scene of St Peter in Prison visited by St Paul, painted by Filippino Lippi. St Peter is visible at a window with bars, while the visitor gives his back to the viewer. Perhaps the scene followed a drawing by Masaccio, as shown by the perfect architectural continuity with the adjacent scene of the Resurrection of the Son of Theophilus.
Decoration of the Brancacci Chapel stayed incomplete due to Masaccio's departure to Rome in 1427, where he died a year later. Moreover, the commissioning patron's exile in 1436 hindered any possibility of the frescos completion by other artists; in fact, it is probable that some parts already painted by Masaccio were removed as a sort of damnatio memoriae, because of their portraiture of the Brancacci family members. Only with the return of this family to Florence in 1480, the frescos could be resumed, by commissioning the artist closer and more faithful to the great Masaccio tradition, that is to say, Filippino Lippi, the son of his first apprentice. Filippino's intervention is not documented with precision, but is datable to ca. 1485 thanks to some indications given by Giorgio Vasari.[21]
This is the last scene, to be related to the imprisoned saint on the opposite wall. In fact, it shows St Peter's liberation from prison by an angel, and it's entirely attributable to Filippino Lippi. Here too the architecture is connected with that of the adjacent depiction. The sword-armed guard sleeps in the foreground, leaning on a stick, whilst the miraculous rescue is happening – this implies Christian salvation, as well as perhaps Florence's recovered autonomy after the contention with Milan.
Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St Peter
The large panel in the lower register, right wall, is by Filippino Lippi. Outside the city walls, (in Rome, as indicated by the Pyramid of Cestius along the Aurelian Walls and by the edifices peeking from the merlons) one may see, on the right, the disputation between Simon Magus and St Peter in front of Nero, with a pagan idol lying at the latter's feet. On the left, Peter's crucifixion is taking place: the saint is hanging upside down because he refused to be crucified in the same position as Christ's. The scene is replete with portraits: the youth with a beret on the extreme right is Filippino's self-portrait. The old man with a red hat in the group near St Peter and Simon Magus, is Antonio del Pollaiuolo. The young man below the archway and looking towards the viewer, is a portrait of Sandro Botticelli, Filippino's friend and teacher. In Simon Magus, some critics wish to see the poet Dante Alighieri, celebrated as the creator of the renowned Italianvernacular used by Lorenzo il Magnifico and Agnolo Poliziano.
Layout of the painting complex
Left wall
Left wall, higher partII. Expulsion of Adam and Eve (Masaccio), V. Tribute (Masaccio), IX. St Peter Preaching (Masolino, detail)
Left wall, lower partXIII. St Paul Visiting St Peter in Prison (Filippino Lippi, unrestored), XV. Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned (Masaccio and Filippino Lippi), XI. St Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow (Masaccio)
Right wall
Right wall, higher partX. Baptism of the Neophytes (Masaccio), VI. Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabitha (Masolino), I=Original Sin (Masolino)
Right wall, lower partXII. The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias (Masaccio), XVI. Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St Peter (Filippino Lippi), XIV. St Peter Being Freed from Prison (Filippino Lippi)
Influence
Masaccio's application of scientific perspective, unified lighting, use of chiaroscuro and skill in rendering the figures naturalistically established new traditions in Renaissance Florence that some scholars credit with helping to found the new Renaissance style.[22]
The young Michelangelo was one of the many artists who received his artistic training by copying Masaccio's work in the chapel. The chapel was also the site of an assault on Michelangelo by rival sculptor Pietro Torrigiano, who resented Michelangelo's critical remarks about his draughtsmanship. He punched the artist so severely that he "crushed his nose like a biscuit" (according to Benvenuto Cellini)[23] which deformed Michelangelo's face into that of a boxer's.
Restoration
The first restoration of the chapel frescoes was in 1481-1482, by Filippino Lippi, who was also responsible for completing the cycle. Due to the lamps used for lighting the dark chapel, the frescoes were relatively quickly coated in dust and dirt from the smoke. Another restoration was conducted at the end of the 16th century. Around 1670, sculptures were added, and the fresco-secco additions were made to the frescoes, to hide the various cases of nudity. Late 20th century restoration removed the overpainting and collected dust and dirt. Some critics, including professor and art historian James H. Beck,[24] have criticised these efforts, while others, including professors, historians and restorers, have praised the work done on the chapel.
↑ The sinopia is the underdrawing for fresco made with reddish, greenish or brownish earth colour with water brushed on the arriccio layer, over which the intonaco is applied before painting. Red earth (iron oxide) mined by the town of Sinopia during the Renaissance period (present Turkey), currently depleted, gave the name to the method. During Giotto times and before Sinopia was the main preparatory drawing - the entire fresco was designed in Sinopia directly on the wall. Cartoons were implemented later after the perspective was "invented" and more thorough composition development became essential. Arriccio (Ariccio; Arricciato, Arriccato) or Browncoat is a layer of plaster over the roughcoat (Trullisatio) and just under the finish coat of plaster (Intonaco) which will be painted. The sinopia or full scale composition is laid out on the arriccio.
↑ Cf. F. Antal, La pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale nel Trecento e nel primo Quattrocento, Turin (1960), s.v. "Catasto" and passim; see also R. C. Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence, Ithaca (1980), Pt. 1, Ch. 1, pp. 9–33.
↑ Jacobus de Voragine. "44. The Chair of Saint Peter". In The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, translated by William Granger Ryan, 1.162–1.166. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1993. Theophilus was a prefect of Antioch.
↑ Cf. R. C. Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence, cit., s.v. "Milan"
↑ Cf. Federico Zeri, Masaccio: Trinità, cit., pp. 34-35; see also F. Antal, La pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale nel Trecento e nel primo Quattrocento, cit., ibid.; M. Carniani, "La Cappella Brancacci a Santa Maria del Carmine", in AA.VV., Cappelle del Rinascimento a Firenze, Florence (1998).
↑ M. Carniani, "La Cappella Brancacci a Santa Maria del Carmine", cit.
↑ Cf. O. Casazza, Masaccio, Florence (1990), s.v. "Stile rinascimentale".
↑ Cf. H. Hibbard, Michelangelo, Folio Society (2007), p. 12.
Masaccio, born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at imitating nature, recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. He employed nudes and foreshortenings in his figures. This had seldom been done before him.
Filippino Lippi was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance.
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Masolino da Panicale was an Italian painter. His best known works are probably his collaborations with Masaccio: Madonna with Child and St. Anne (1424) and the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel (1424–1428).
Filippo Lippi, also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento and a Carmelite priest. He was an early Renaissance master of a painting workshop, who taught many painters. Sandro Botticelli and Francesco di Pesello were among his most distinguished pupils. His son, Filippino Lippi, also studied under him and assisted in some late works.
The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is a fresco by the Italian Early Renaissance artist Masaccio. The fresco is a single scene from the cycle painted around 1425 by Masaccio, Masolino and others on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It depicts the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, from the biblical Book of Genesis chapter 3, albeit with a few differences from the canonical account.
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Santa Maria del Carmine is a church of the Carmelite Order, in the Oltrarno district of Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. It is famous as the location of the Brancacci Chapel housing outstanding Renaissance frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino da Panicale, later finished by Filippino Lippi.
The Sassetti Chapel is a chapel in the basilica of Santa Trinita in Florence, Italy. It is especially notable for its frescoes of the Stories of St. Francis, considered Domenico Ghirlandaio's masterwork.
This article about the development of themes in Italian Renaissance painting is an extension to the article Italian Renaissance painting, for which it provides additional pictures with commentary. The works encompassed are from Giotto in the early 14th century to Michelangelo's Last Judgement of the 1530s.
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The Tornabuoni Chapel is the main chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy. It is famous for the extensive and well-preserved fresco cycle on its walls, one of the most complete in the city, which was created by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490.
The Tribute Money is a fresco by the Italian Early Renaissance painter Masaccio, located in the Brancacci Chapel of the basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Painted in the 1420s, it is widely considered among Masaccio's best work, and a vital part of the development of Renaissance art.
Felice di Michele Brancacci was a Florentine silk merchant, best known for commissioning the decoration of the Brancacci Chapel. The nephew and heir of Piero di Piuvichese Brancacci, he was involved in Mediterranean silk trade, and also acted as a diplomat.
The Carafa Chapel is a chapel in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, Italy, known for a series of frescoes by Filippino Lippi.
The Funeral of St. Jerome is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi of Saint Jerome's funeral. It is housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo next to the Cathedral of Prato, central Italy.
The Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist is a fresco cycle by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi and his assistants, executed between 1452 and 1465. It is located in the Great Chapel of the Cathedral of Prato, Italy.
Andrea di Giusto, rarely also known as Andrea Manzini or Andrea di Giusto Manzini was a Florentine painter of the late Gothic to early Renaissance style in Florence and its surrounding countryside. Andrea was heavily influenced by masters Lorenzo Monaco, Bicci di Lorenzo, Masaccio, and Fra Angelico, and tended to mix and match the motifs and techniques of these artists in his own work. Andrea was an eclectic painter and is considered a minor master of Florentine early Renaissance art. Andrea trained under Bicci di Lorenzo as a Garzone. He painted his most significant works, three altarpieces, in the Florentine contado, or countryside; these altarpieces were created for Sant’Andrea a Ripalta in Figline, Santa Margarita in Cortona, and the Badia degli Olivetani di San Bartolomeo alle Sacce near Prato. Aside from his major altarpieces, Andrea painted several Frescoes over the course of his career. He, along with other minor masters, are also known to have provided several different types of art, including triptychs and frescoes, for Romanesque pievi, or rural churches with baptistries. Moreover, he was well known for several types of smaller craft objects, such as small tabernacles. He is said to have worked between 1420 and 1424 under Bicci di Lorenzo on paintings for Santa Maria Nuova. He is said to have worked with Masaccio in painting the Life of San Giuliano for the Polyptych of Pisa, including the painting of the Madonna and Child, in 1426. He also appears to have collaborated in 1445 with Paolo Uccello in the Capella dell'Assunta in the Prato Cathedral. In 1428, he is listed as a member of the Arte dei Medici e Speziali guild in Florence as "Andrea di Giusto di Giovanni Bugli". His son, Giusto d'Andrea, was also a painter and worked with Neri di Bicci and Benozzo Gozzoli. Andrea died in Florence in 1450.
Creation and the Fall are a pair of 1420-1425 frescoes by Paolo Uccello, produced for the Chiostro Verde in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. As with the other frescoes in the cloister, it shows scenes from the Book of Genesis in monochrome, terra verde or "verdeterra", a pigment based on silica and iron oxide. The upper lunette shows Creation of the Animals and the Creation of Adam and the rectangular work below shows Creation of Eve and the Fall. Both works have now been transferred to canvas and were restored in 2013–2014, after which it was considered moving them to an internal room within the complex.
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