Masaccio's Masterpieces in the Brancacci Chapel

The Tribute Money by Masaccio

• Work: The Tribute of the Currency or Money Caesar
• Year: 1425
• Location: Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Church of Carmen), Florence
• Style: Renaissance (Quattrocento)
• Medium: Fresco painting on a wall
• Theme: Religious

Analysis of the Fresco

This work is part of a series of fresco scenes depicting the Old and New Testaments. It situates three scenes of the same event on a single straight wall. The scene shows the three moments of the episode in which Christ, from whom the collector had requested payment, tells Peter with a gesture that he will find the money in the water. Peter is shown drawing a coin from the mouth of a fish from the nearby lake and delivering it to the collector.

Masaccio conceived the perspective based on the visual relationship with the spectator. He carefully manages color and shapes, creating an environment in which color is softened by distance and in which the clothing, with no frills, falls in voluminous and majestic creases. He uses the rectangle as a framework in which to develop the depth of the theme. In the background, one can see a row of mountains. The entrance to the city is drawn with a very successful geometric perspective. Also, to achieve effects of depth, he puts the characters in profile and from behind, mixed with others facing the front. The main scene (Jesus and his disciples) has a feature that is medieval: isocephaly.

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Earthly Paradise

• Artist: Masaccio
• Year: 1425
• Location: Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Church of Carmen), Florence
• Style: Renaissance (Quattrocento)
• Technique: Fresco on a wall
• Theme: Religious

Analysis of the Scene

In the 17th and 18th centuries, clothing was painted onto the figures to cover the genitalia of Adam and Eve; however, during restoration, these additions were removed, returning the work to its original state. The sky background consists of a bluish-gray fresco preparation.

The result is a scene of great dramatic intensity. It presents real humanity in which a man hides his face and a woman cries heartbreakingly in shame. The figures have been reduced to their essential forms. The gate of Paradise seems to close, preventing any possibility of return for the characters as they deviate toward the hard road of a barren land under the threat of the armed Angel standing guard.