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Europe 1300 - 1800
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
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Masaccio, Holy Trinity
By Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Masaccio was the first painter in the Renaissance to incorporate Brunelleschi's discovery, linear perspective, in his art. He did this in his fresco, the Holy Trinity, in Santa Maria Novella, in Florence.
Have a close look at this perspective diagram. The orthogonals can be seen in the edges of the coffers in the ceiling (look for diagonal lines that appear to recede into the distance). Because Masaccio painted from a low viewpoint, as though we were looking up at Christ, we see the orthogonals in the ceiling, and if we traced all of the orthogonals, we would see that the vanishing point is on the ledge where the donors kneel on.
God's feet
Our favorite part of this fresco is God's feet. Actually, you can only really see one of them.
God is standing in this painting. This may not strike you all that much when you first think about it because our idea of God, our picture of God in our mind's eye—as an old man with a beard—is very much based on Renaissance images of God. So, here Masaccio imagines God as a man. Not a force or power, or something abstract, but as a man. A man who stands—his feet are foreshortened, and he weighs something and is capable of walking. In medieval art, God was often represented by a hand, as though God was an abstract force or power in our lives—but here, he seems so much like a flesh and blood man. This is a good indication of humanism in the Italian renaissance.
Masaccio's contemporaries were struck by the palpable realism of this fresco, as was , who lived over one hundred years later. Vasari wrote that "the most beautiful thing, apart from the figures, is a barrel-shaped vaulting, drawn in perspective and divided into squares filled with rosettes, which are foreshortened and made to diminish so well that the wall appears to be pierced." [1]
The architecture
One of the other remarkable things about this fresco is the use of the forms of classical architecture (from ancient Greece and Rome). Masaccio borrowed much of what we see from ancient Roman architecture, and may have been helped by the great Renaissance architect Brunelleschi.
Coffers—the indented squares on the ceiling
Column—a round, supporting element in architecture. In this fresco by Masaccio, we see an attached column
Pilasters—a shallow, flattened-out column attached to a wall—it is only decorative, and has no supporting function
Barrel Vault—vault means ceiling, and a barrel vault is a ceiling in the shape of a round arch
Ionic and Corinthian Capitals—a capital is the decorated top of a column or pilaster. An ionic capital has a scroll shape (like the ones on the attached columns in the painting), and a Corinthian capital has leaf shapes.
Fluting—the vertical, indented lines or grooves that decorated the pilasters in the painting—fluting can also be applied to a column
Notes:
[1] Vasari, "Masaccio" in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects the Artists (first published in 1550 in Italian).
Additional resources
Read a Reframing Art History textbook chapter about Art in the Italian Renaissance Republics, c. 1400–1600.
Essay by Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris
Want to join the conversation?
what was the point of the holy spirit being a bird?(3 votes)
Because in the bible the Holy Spirit comes down as a dove.(6 votes)
Are the columns near the Skelton Tuscan and so it would follow the architure of the time in using the Tuscan floor tiles by the Iconic and then the Corinthian?(4 votes)
What is not an example of humanism in Masaccio's Holy Trinity?(1 vote)
How do I find out when was this article published?(1 vote)- Where is the excellent video on Masaccio, Holy Trinity I showed it to my class last year and now I can get to it from your site.(1 vote)