Masaccio

Masaccio, a Florentine painter, whose proper name was TOMMASO GUIDI, was born in 1401 or 1402 in the Arno valley, probably at Castel San Giovanni. He was nicknamed Masaccio ('Slovenly Tommy') because of his ungainly appearance and careless manners. A reputed pupil of Masolino, he was enrolled in the Florentine guild of painters in 1424. Whilst still a young man he seems to have executed a fresco of the Crucifixion and scenes illustrating the lives of some of the later saints in the church of St Clement. But his greatest achievements were wrought on the walls of the Carmine church, especially in the Brancacci chapel. It has been matter of controversy as to which pictures precisely were from the brush of Masaccio; Masolino worked at the same walls before him and Filippino Lippi after him. Those which are assigned to him beyond doubt or question are 'Expulsion from Paradise' (greatly admired by Raphael, who repeated the design in the loggie of the Vatican), 'Peter and the Tribute-money,' 'Temptation of Adam and Eve,' 'Peter Preaching,' and the same saint 'Baptising,' 'Healing the Sick,' 'Giving Alms,' and (in part) 'Restoring the Young Man to Life.' These works mark an advance in Italian painting, in that they exhibit a more vigorous and correct representation of nature, with improved perspective and harmony of arrangement between the figures and the background. Many of the subsequent 15th-century painters of Italy were greatly influenced by the study of them. Towards the end of 1428 Masaccio suddenly left Florence, and is reported to have gone to Rome and to have died there before the year 1429 ran out.