Painting like other arts, honors those who die young. The earliest and one of the greatest of these was Thommaso di Giovanni di Simone Guidi, known as Masaccio, a nickname that translates as "clumsy or hulking Tom".
Masaccio was born in the Tuscan province of Arezzo, the son of a lawyer. When he was 16 he went to Florence where he joined the painter's guild 1422.
He painted in Florence and Pisa and in 1428 traveled to Rome, where almost immediately, (some said by poison) he died.
Masaccio cared nothing for the food he ate or the clothes he wore, the room he lived in or the money he received, he lived for his painting and his loss was deeply mourned at the time and seemed all the greater as his fellow artists began to take in the discoveries he had made in his eight years of creative life.
He was the first painter since Giotto's death to fully understand and master his predecessor's achievements and to build on them.
Masaccio learned from the sculpture of his friend Donatello (plate 1) and from the mathematical laws of perspective and vanishing points provided by Brunelleschi (plate 2). These influences combined with his own genius and dedication, were to bring about a revolution in painting.
The first major work by Masaccio for which documentary evidence exists is the polyptych he painted for the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa in 1426. Sadly this was dismantled in the 18th century and to date only 11 sections have been identified in museums and private collections.
A recent attempt to reconstruct the placement of the panels would suggest that the Enthroned Madonna and Child, (plate 3) now in the National Gallery, London, was the central panel.
In this panel a great Brunelleschan throne stands out in solid grandeur, with its Roman pillars and step. As the light falls in from the left it gives a solidity of form and creates a depth and sense of space that is filled with the large figure of the mother of God. She is wrapped in a cloak of ultramarine, the folds of which further serve the purpose of asserting her important and presence. The Virgins face and the child's body are not outlined as in the International Gothic style favored by his contempories, such as Gentile Da Fabriano, (plate 4) but are softly painted in realistic flesh tones. The Madonna holds out a bunch of grapes to her child and he grasps them with his left hand whilst stuffing them into his moth with his right.
Masaccio spent time watching young children and observing them at play, and it is thought that he drew the infant Jesus from life.
The realistic feel of the figures captures the viewer instantly, and whilst the sheer scale of the Virgin render her importance, this is essentially a portrait of a mother and her child. This allows the viewer to relate and empathize with the relationship between the figures on an emotional level.
The Virgins head appears weary as it bends over her child, her expression saddened but resigned as she broods over his fate. The grapes that the infant Jesus eats are a symbol of his future suffering and death on the cross, the relish with which he eats them perhaps intended to show his passion for mankind and acceptance of his fate.
This is a compelling, tender and beautiful image but also somewhat disturbing. The viewer relates personally to the sorrow of the Virgin and the ultimate sacrifice that she must make. This was most likely the artist's intention; no longer are these flat images of godly icons but human beings capable of love and loss, pain and sorrow, resigned to a terrible fate.
This serves the purpose of humanizing the scriptures and making them more relevant to the congregation that looked upon them and bringing the lesson closer to home.
Masaccio's greatest and most influential achievements were the fresco's he painted for the Branachi Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, and the Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella, both in Florence. All the frescos in the Branachi Chapel, painted between 1424 and 1428, represent scenes from the life of St Peter. The room is dominated by Masaccio's masterpiece The Tribute Money, (plate 5) illustrating a little known incident, which is recalled in the Gospel of St Matthew.
In the centre the tax gatherer demands his tribute and Christ points out to St Peter where to find it. To the left St Peter is seen on the shore of Galilee taking the coin from the gapping mouth of a fish, and to the right he is seen handing the money to the tax gatherer outside his house.
