Description
The Brancacci Chapel, in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno, is a small frescoed chapel where Renaissance painting took one of its first great steps. The walls are covered with the stories of Saint Peter painted by Masaccio and Masolino, and completed half a century later by Filippino Lippi.
The church, with its rough, never-finished facade, dominates Piazza del Carmine. Inside, the chapel is at the end of the right transept: a few square meters, painted on two levels, which Vasari called the "school of the world."
The work to look for first is Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden: Eve howls in pain and Adam covers his face with his hands, while the angel with the sword drives them out. It is a despair never seen before in painting, with heavy bodies and real shadows.
Next to it is the Tribute Money, Masaccio's masterpiece, painted in 32 working days: in a single scene, with mountains fading into the horizon, Peter takes the coin from the mouth of a fish and hands it to the tax collector. Opposite, Masolino's Temptation of Adam and Eve, elegant and calm, makes a counterpoint.
Also worth a look are Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow and the Baptism of the Neophytes, with a boy shivering with cold as he waits his turn. In the lower part, the scene with the crucifixion of Peter is by Filippino Lippi.
The frescoes are full of portraits of contemporaries. Filippino painted himself, his friend and teacher Botticelli and Antonio del Pollaiolo; among Masaccio's figures, Masolino and perhaps Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti are said to be recognizable.
The cycle was commissioned by Felice Brancacci, a wealthy silk merchant, around 1424. Masolino and Masaccio worked on the same scaffold, taking turns on the walls. Then Masaccio left for Rome and died there in 1428; Felice, an enemy of Cosimo de' Medici, ended up in exile, and the portraits of his family were erased.
Only around 1480, with the return of the Brancacci, was the work given to Filippino Lippi, son of Filippo Lippi, one of Masaccio's first pupils. In 1771 a great fire destroyed almost the whole interior of the church, but the chapel was spared.
Whole generations of artists came here to copy Masaccio, Michelangelo included. And right here, according to the story, the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano punched him and broke his nose, disfiguring it forever.
Don't miss
• The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
• The Tribute Money.
• Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow.
• Filippino Lippi's self-portraits.
Did you know?
• In the 1600s the nudity of Adam and Eve was covered with painted leaves, removed only by the restoration finished in 1990.
• The thirteenth-century Madonna of the People on the altar escaped the fire of 1771 by chance: it had been moved to the convent about a year earlier.
The church, with its rough, never-finished facade, dominates Piazza del Carmine. Inside, the chapel is at the end of the right transept: a few square meters, painted on two levels, which Vasari called the "school of the world."
The work to look for first is Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden: Eve howls in pain and Adam covers his face with his hands, while the angel with the sword drives them out. It is a despair never seen before in painting, with heavy bodies and real shadows.
Next to it is the Tribute Money, Masaccio's masterpiece, painted in 32 working days: in a single scene, with mountains fading into the horizon, Peter takes the coin from the mouth of a fish and hands it to the tax collector. Opposite, Masolino's Temptation of Adam and Eve, elegant and calm, makes a counterpoint.
Also worth a look are Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow and the Baptism of the Neophytes, with a boy shivering with cold as he waits his turn. In the lower part, the scene with the crucifixion of Peter is by Filippino Lippi.
The frescoes are full of portraits of contemporaries. Filippino painted himself, his friend and teacher Botticelli and Antonio del Pollaiolo; among Masaccio's figures, Masolino and perhaps Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti are said to be recognizable.
The cycle was commissioned by Felice Brancacci, a wealthy silk merchant, around 1424. Masolino and Masaccio worked on the same scaffold, taking turns on the walls. Then Masaccio left for Rome and died there in 1428; Felice, an enemy of Cosimo de' Medici, ended up in exile, and the portraits of his family were erased.
Only around 1480, with the return of the Brancacci, was the work given to Filippino Lippi, son of Filippo Lippi, one of Masaccio's first pupils. In 1771 a great fire destroyed almost the whole interior of the church, but the chapel was spared.
Whole generations of artists came here to copy Masaccio, Michelangelo included. And right here, according to the story, the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano punched him and broke his nose, disfiguring it forever.
Don't miss
• The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
• The Tribute Money.
• Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow.
• Filippino Lippi's self-portraits.
Did you know?
• In the 1600s the nudity of Adam and Eve was covered with painted leaves, removed only by the restoration finished in 1990.
• The thirteenth-century Madonna of the People on the altar escaped the fire of 1771 by chance: it had been moved to the convent about a year earlier.