1401 -1428 · Florence, Pisa and early Renaissance

Monumental bodies, coherent light and constructed perspective make Masaccio the revolutionary painter who opened the Florentine Renaissance.

Tommaso di ser Giovanni di Mone Cassai, nicknamed Masaccio, was born in 1401 in Castel San Giovanni, today San Giovanni Valdarno, and died in Rome in 1428, at only twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Despite a career of less than a decade, he lastingly transformed European painting. Despite a career of less than a decade, he frequented Brunelleschi and Donatello, whose research on perspective and the sculptural body nourished his art. Installed in Florence, he frequented Brunelleschi and Donatello, whose research on perspective and the sculptural body nourished his art. Masaccio abandoned the linear elegance of international Gothic to give figures weight, shadow and a credible place in space. Masaccio abandons the linear elegance of international Gothic to give figures weight, shadow and a credible place in space. Masaccio abandons the linear elegance of international Gothic to give figures weight, shadow and a credible place in space. Masaccio abandons the linear elegance of international Gothic to give figures weight, shadow and a credible place in space. Masaccio abandons the linear elegance of international Gothic to give figures weight, shadow and a credible place in space. Masaccio abandons the linear elegance of painted in collaboration with Masolino, The Tribute of Saint Peter, The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias or The Expulsion from Paradise construct stories where architecture, landscape and human gestures obey the same logic. Perspective does not only serve as a demonstration: it makes the action clear and shareable. For the polyptych of Pisa of 1426, Masaccio notably painted a Crucifixion whose low view adapts the bodies to the original position of the panel. The pain of Mary Magdalene, with open arms at the foot of the cross, is expressed in a simple and monumental form. In Santa Maria Novella, the Trinity creates the illusion of a deep chapel thanks to a vanishing point rigorously calculated. Giotto, ancient sculpture and Florentine innovations are thus found in a brief work which becomes the foundation of entire generations. The "Masaccio" selection notably compares Crucifixion and Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias. His reading favors space.

Masaccio no longer places figures in front of a setting: he gives them a common world, a common light and the real weight of human action.