Main content
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 3
Lesson 3: Painting in central Italy- Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi
- Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi
- Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi (reframed)
- Masaccio, Virgin and Child Enthroned
- Masaccio, The Holy Trinity
- Masaccio, Holy Trinity
- Masaccio, Holy Trinity (quiz)
- Masaccio, The Tribute Money in the Brancacci Chapel
- Masaccio, The Tribute Money in the Brancacci Chapel
- Masaccio, Tribute Money (quiz)
- Masaccio, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden
- Fra Angelico, The Annunciation (Prado)
- Fra Angelico, The Annunciation
- Fra Angelico's Annunciation (quiz)
- Uccello, The Battle of San Romano
- Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with two Angels
- Lippi, Madonna and Child with Two Angels
- Lippi, Madonna and Child with two Angels (quiz)
- Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child
- Lippi, Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement
- Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration
- Benozzo Gozzoli, The Medici Palace Chapel frescoes
- Beyond the Madonna, an early image of enslaved people in Renaissance Florence
- Veneziano, St. Lucy Altarpiece
- Antonio Pollaiuolo, Battle of Ten Nudes
- Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter
- Ghirlandaio, Birth of the Virgin
- Cassone with the Conquest of Trebizond
- Botticelli, Primavera
- A celebration of beauty and love: Botticelli's Birth of Venus
- Botticelli, Birth of Venus (quiz)
- Botticelli, Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici
- Portraits and fashion: Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Young Woman
- Napoleon's booty — Perugino's (gorgeous) Decemviri Altarpiece
- The Early Renaissance in Florence (including painting, sculpture and architecture) (quiz)
- Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ
- Piero della Francesca, Baptism of Christ (quiz)
- Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ
- A Renaissance masterpiece nearly lost in war: Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection
- Piero della Francesca, Resurrection
- Piero della Francesca, Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino
- Piero della Francesca, Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (quiz)
- Signorelli, The Damned Cast into Hell
- Martini, Architectural Veduta
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Masaccio, The Holy Trinity
Masaccio, Holy Trinity, c. 1427, Fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Somewhere I remember coming across the mememto mori phrase "As I am now, so you shall be, as you are now so once was I" in a different variation:
As you are now, so once was I, As I am now so you shall be, prepare for death and follow me.
Would Masaccio's version be the "original" or would anyone know if this is the first time that this phrase appears in history or was it a common Latin proverb?(4 votes)- The inscription in the Holy Trinity is not in Latin but in ancient Italian:
IO FU’ GIÀ QUEL CHE VOI SETE, E QUEL CH’I’ SON VOI ANCO SARETE. The translation is, more or less: As you are now, so once was I, As I am now so you shall be.
There is an inscription in Latin:
Viator, viator: quod tu es, ego fui; quod nunc sum, et tu eris.
(CIL XI 6243, da Fano [Marche])
http://ilmaleminore.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/antologia_di_epigrammi_1.pdf(6 votes)
- Is it possible that the rays between Christ's head and the dove is the transference of the soul into the spirit?(3 votes)
- Good observation! That's an interesting interpretation - I suppose that could be the artist's original intention.(3 votes)
- Who are under Mary and Saint John?(3 votes)
- You will note there is no chapel. The fresco stands openly in the nave. Art Historians (mainly Germans who did considerable research in Florence in the 1960s) have conjectured that there was a free-standing alter in front of the fresco concealing the tomb portion. The free-standing altar was not alien to the times or to Masaccio who wrote about them. There was probably a slab in the floor that contained not just a body, but probably the names of the donors. When the church was re-organized in the 16th century and "opened" up by removing the screen crossing the nave, the altar(s) was removed as well as the slab. Hence, we no longer know who the donors were, or whose tomb was moved. It has been conjectured that this was an example of early 15th century Florentine tomb sculpture. To me this makes more sense than all the "nice" conjecture of viewpoint and points to why a Florentine would pay an artist to paint the fresco: the donors are praying to the Trinity for the soul of the departed buried under the slab behind the altar.(3 votes)
- When Dr. Harris says that Masaccio uses "modeling" is she referring to the usage of light and dark shadows to create depth?(3 votes)
- That's correct! Modeling and the italian term chiaroscuro refer to the use of light and shadow to represent volume and/or depth.(3 votes)
- This is truly a nit-pick, but... at about1:45the speakers talk about how "life-like" the rendering of Christ is "pulled and tortured and effected by gravity." As far as realism goes, I don't think this looks at all like what a body nailed to the cross would look like or how it would hang. I think this is a much more "softened" and stylized depiction reflecting past (and present) renderings. What do you think?(3 votes)
- The speakers mention that this depiction is far more life-like than the depictions of Christ that immediately preceded Massacio's. I suspect that the anatomy of Christ plays a very large role in this: the muscles in his arms and abdomen are spectacularly realistic. However, I do agree with you that a real person strung up on a cross would look very different.(3 votes)
- Can anyone explain how three entities (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) can each be completely the one and only God at the same time?
What about Jesus? How can Jesus be both fully God and fully human at the same time?
The mind is boggled pondering all this.(2 votes)- In Christianity, God exists as a perfectly unified love relationship between 3 persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God is three in one. There is one God, but he is not an individual, he exists as one family- a more perfectly unified family than could be imagined.
As for Jesus being fully God and fully human, it's a concept that is difficult to understand. Jesus is 100% human and 100% God. However, he is not 200/200%. Jesus is 100 and 100 at the same, flawlessly unified.
The thing to keep in mind is that even the most experienced Bible scholars still struggle to understand these miraculous relationships. It is frankly impossible to fully comprehend unless you were supernatural yourself.(1 vote)
- When you get a really clear view of the painting, I noticed at0:30that Mary and the person diagonal from her are both wearing black. St. John and the person opposite diagonal from him are wearing red. This looks like a "chiastic" effect and I am thinking, "Did Masaccio mean to do this and why?"(2 votes)
- The three part nature of God is a fairly common understanding in Christianity, isn't it?
(1:05)
"by Holy Trinity we mean the three part nature of God.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: As understood in the Catholic tradition"
(if anything, this idea may be closest to Orthodox tradition, not Catholic tradition?)(1 vote)- I was of course making this statement in the context of the Masaccio. This is obviously a Catholic context. I was not making a larger statement.(2 votes)
- why does God look like he doesn't even care that his son is being crucified he doesn't even show sypethy why?
oh and some people say that Adam was buried in the place where Christ was crucified so that's also what the skeleton might mean(0 votes)- @ jetpopkid
God did show sympathy to His Son when he was being crucified it's just Masaccio doesn't show it in his painting; and he probably did that on purpose because, even though God was sorry for His Son he knew that what Jesus did was the only way that mankind could have a relationship with God - through Jesus taking our place on the cross.
Also I think that skeleton might be simply a symbol of what we are all going to go through in some point in our life.(4 votes)
- Are things like the Holy Relics of Christianity such as the Helena's Nail and such ever truly depicted in any of these Renaissance paintings?(1 vote)
- I don't know that they are depicted, however many works were created as reliquaries to store such items. Look into Karlstejn Castle, and the works of Master Theodoric (14th c. Europe)(1 vote)
Video transcript
(mellow jazz music) - [Steven] We're in Santa Maria Novella, an enormous Dominican church in Florence. We've just come in from
a cloistered graveyard. The first thing we see
across this enormous expanse is Masaccio's The Holy Trinity with the Virgin and St. John. - [Beth] Although this painting has a long and complicated history of
being moved and restored, the doorway we walked in
and the view that we got was likely the view that the public got in the early 15th century
when Masaccio painted it. - [Steven] Much of the rest
of the church has changed. There may have been an altar
in front of this painting. To the right, there would have
been an enormous tramezzo, that is a screen that
would have blocked access to the inner sanctum of the church. - [Beth] The subject is the Holy Trinity. According to Catholic doctrine, God is God the Father, the Son
Christ and the Holy Spirit. - [Steven] This was a
fairly standard motif, this elder figure that
represents God the Father, the dove representing the Holy Spirit and Christ on a crucifix. This is known as the Throne of Mercy. The idea is that this throne
is the throne of judgment, that through Christ, man can be saved. - [Beth] On the side of the Holy Trinity, we see Mary. She gestures to Christ and God. She acts as an intercessor, an intermediary between
us and the divine world and points to Christ and God. - [Steven] Opposite her stands St. John. - [Beth] All of those divine
figures occupy the same space. Outside of that space, we
see two kneeling figures, a man on the left, a woman on the right. These are the patrons who
commissioned this fresco. If you look at them closely, you see that they look straight ahead. - [Steven] And slightly up. - [Beth] They're in a position
of prayer, of contemplation. - [Steven] Below this,
we have a memento mori that is a reminder of death. We see a tomb, two columns on either side, and between that, a sarcophagus. But laid on top of that is a skeleton. In back of it, as if carved
into stone, is an inscription. - [Beth] I was as you are. And what I am, you soon will be. This is written in Italian, not in Latin, so not in the language of the church, but in the everyday language
of the people of Florence. It is reminding us that
our time on earth is short, and death could come at any time. We should be preparing for our salvation. - [Steven] It's a reminder
that this painting had multiple audiences. It had the Dominican
clergy of this church. But there was a secondary audience, the lay people of
Florence that were allowed into this part of the church. - [Beth] We have to imagine
the Dominican friars preaching in front of this image to
the citizens of Florence, who would come specifically
to hear that preaching. People would come to
visit their loved ones in the cemetery, just
outside in the cloister. They'd walk through the door, and they would see this
image and make a connection between the death of their loved ones and their own mortality. - [Steven] Although this motif was common, almost anybody looking at this painting in the early 15th century
would have recognized the changes that Masaccio
has brought to this motif, principally, the classicism
of the architecture and the naturalism of the figures. - [Beth] In most representations of this, Christ and God are placed in the mandorla, that is a kind of enormous halo that encompassed both
figures and in that way, situated them in an
otherworldly, heavenly space. But here, Masaccio has given us what looks like ancient
Roman architecture. And in fact, Brunelleschi, the great early Renaissance architect, likely helped design the
architectural framework that we see here. On either side, we see fluted pilasters. Those have Corinthian
or composite capitals. - [Steven] A pilaster is
really a flattened column-- - [Beth] one that's attached to a wall. - [Steven] Above that is an
entablature and a cornice with dentils, another ancient Roman motif. - [Beth] The figures of
the Trinity are framed by a round arch which is a classical arch, not a pointed, medieval Gothic arch. That arch is carried
by two attached columns with Ionic capitals. Everything that we're describing here is taken directly from ancient
Greek and Roman architecture. - [Steven] Behind the
arch, we see a barrel vault that's defined by a
beautiful series of coffers with alternating colors. At the very back of the space, we can see a secondary arch. So we have a very rational
space, a measurable space, a space that makes sense. - [Beth] And it makes sense precisely because Masaccio is
using linear perspective. This is one of the earliest
uses of linear perspective, rediscovered by Brunelleschi
less than a decade before. Masaccio is using linear perspective to create a convincing illusion
that this is not a wall, but in fact, the space of a chapel. - [Steven] The linear perspective is made of three components, most
importantly, a vanishing point. According to Alberti, who published a book called "On Painting," soon
after this painting was made, linear perspective works best when the vanishing point is at
the eye level of the viewer. And indeed, that is precisely
where Masaccio has placed it. It's in the center of the composition, just a few inches above my eye level. From it radiate a series of orthogonals, illusionistic diagonals that
appear to recede in space. They are the agent that
create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. And then, the third piece
is the horizon line, defined by that bottom step. - [Beth] And Masaccio
exploits chiaroscuro, that movement from light to dark to create a sense of volume. So we see the ribcage lifted up. We see the muscles in the
abdomen, the muscles in the arms. We sense the pull of Christ's
weight from the cross. This interest in
naturalistic human anatomy is a key feature of the early Renaissance. - [Steven] Here again is a correspondence with the work of the architect
and sculptor, Brunelleschi, who produced a wooden crucifix which is also in Santa Maria Novella which like the painted
rendering before us, expresses the artist's careful observation of the human body and understands
it, responding to gravity, a reminder that Christ here is human, has suffered, has died. Both Brunelleschi and Masaccio
could look back a century to another great Italian master, Giotto, and his massive Crucifixion. He was perhaps one of the first artists to begin to think about the representation of the human body, using light and shadow to define its forms, to
begin to pay attention to the anatomy of the body,
to render Christ as physical. - [Beth] One of the most remarkable things to me is God's foot. There we have a perfectly
foreshortened foot and therefore, a sense
that God is standing. To me, that epitomizes what
the Renaissance is about, this interpretation of divine figures as having all of the qualities
that human beings have. - [Steven] So there is
this wonderful conflict between the visionary and the actual. - [Beth] So although the
laity couldn't go beyond the tramezzo, Masaccio
is giving the public a taste of what's beyond by
quoting some works of art in the Strozzi Chapel. - [Steven] In that
chapel, above the altar, is an image of God. And then, just before
the chapel and below, there's a tomb with a
fresco of the Lamentation. So there is a correspondence, perhaps even a deliberate quote in Masaccio's painting in the public part of the church. - [Beth] What we're seeing
is this very frontal image of God, of the Divine, presenting to us the sacrifice that God
has made on our behalf. It's remarkable that this has survived, and we get to see it in
its original location.