MASACCIO, properly TOMASO GUIDI (I40I—C. 1428) Floren tine painter, born on Dec. 21, 1401, at Castel S. Giovanni di Val d'Arno, near Florence, son of a notary of the family of the Scheg gia, was nicknamed Masaccio (for Tomasaccio) on account of his careless habits. In 1422 he was enrolled in the guild of Speziali, or druggists, to which painters belonged, and in 1424 in the guild of St. Luke. He was one of the great pioneers of the Italian Renais sance who did for painting what Donatello had done for sculpture and Brunelleschi for architecture.
With the work of Masaccio began the search for the rendering of three dimensional space and for the placing therein of figures plastically conceived. The newly-discovered laws of perspective were applied, the drawing of foreshortened parts was correct, the anatomy of the human body was well understood. According to Vasari, Masaccio owed his artistic education to Masolino, but Masaccio, although he died 20 years before his master, carried the advance in naturalism further. Unfortunately much of his work has been destroyed, and what remains is often in poor condition. His earliest extant works are the "St. Anne, the Virgin and Child," removed from the Church of S. Ambrogio to the Uffizi ; and a fresco of the "Virgin Enthroned Between Two Saints" in the Ora torio of Montemarciano, near his birthplace. On Feb. 19, 1426, he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the Church of the Carmine at Pisa by the notary, Giuliano di Colino degli Scarzi. This work had disappeared in 175o. It is described by Vasari, and portions of it have recently been identified. The Berlin museum possesses three pieces of the predella, the "Epiphany," the "Death of the Baptist," and the "Crucifixion of St. Peter," also "Four
Saints," which formed part of the framework and were formerly in the Butler Collection, London. The Museo Civico at Pisa has a "St. Paul," and at Vienna there is a "St. Andrew," the Naples mu seum has a "Crucifixion," the central panel, representing a "Ma donna and Child with Angels," was said by Berenson to be a pic ture in the possession of Canon Sutton of Brant Broughton, Lin coln, from whom it was bought for the National Gallery. Masac cio's once much admired fresco of the Trinity is to be seen in a very damaged condition on the entrance wall of S. Maria Novella at Florence. Originally painted over the altar of St. Ignatius, it was for a long time covered over with a painting of Vasari, and then brought to light again. The artist's standard work is in the Brancacci chapel in the Carmine at Florence. Here Masolino had left unfinished a series of frescoes which Masaccio was asked to continue. Six paintings can be ascribed to him with certainty. They represent the "Expulsion from Eden," an expressive painting where Eve cries aloud in anguish while Adam covers his face; "Peter and the Tribute-Money," a large and harmonious compo sition ; "Peter and John Healing the Sick"; "Peter Almsgiving" and "Peter Baptizing"; the "Raising of the King's Son," in which the saint and the group on the left are in part by him, the re mainder being by Filippino Lippi. These frescoes created a sensa tion; they became the training school of Florentine painters of the succeeding generations, of Michelangelo with the rest. Masaccio did not complete the decoration of the chapel. In 1428 he left for Rome, and was reported dead soon afterwards.