1\lasaccio, or Masuccio, was a man of genius, and aim ed at great vivacity of painting. He went to Rome to study the antique, and, by directing his pursuits in a new line, formed, in a manner, an epoch in the art. His com position and foreshortening possess great merit. His heads have grace, and he succeeded in giving the delicate tints of nature to his flesh, varying the expression of his figures, which does not seem to have been thought requi site before, at least in those which were subordinate. The legs and arms were generally the most deficient part of former pictures : Masaccio applied himself to this branch, and succeeded in placing his figures with considerable ease and truth ; and by thus boldly attacking the greatest difficulties of the art, he acquired for himself facility and address of hand. So that many authors consider that his pictures, in point of design and colouring, may stand in competition with the greater works of more modern times.
Masaccio had the talent to discern, that one of the most important objects of the art was expression, and particu larly applied himself to the study of it. Without expres sion, a picture is but a pleasing bauble; it may possess many qualities, but we pass them all over, to fix on that most attractive one which speaks and paints the mind. There are many subordinate requisites which a picture must possess, without which it is no picture ; but they are only the means by which to reach the great end of expres sion : it is that which engages every eye, the uninformed as well as the learned ; for the language of expression is universal. Those who fix on subaltern qualities, acquire a taste which is artificial : they become pedants ; and by the accident of their study being directed partially to one object, they see importance only in that particular walk they have been used to tread.
Nasaccio was very harmonious in his colouring, and would probably have carried the art to considerable im provement had he not died young. He entirely changed the manner of Giotto, introducing a truth and dignity in the heads unknown to his predecessors. He varied the stiff regularity of plaits in the drapery, which formerly often resembled the regular disposition of the pipes of an organ, more than the easy flow of drapery'. In fact, he renewed every thing in the art ; and although few of his works nuw exist, as they were painted principally in fres co, which time has effaced, yet he was very much studied by the great artists that immediately followed him ; and was the first to introduce that modern manner, which, with the improvements of succeeding has conti nued down to our day.
After the death of Masaccio, we find several monks oc cupying themselves in painting their own churches. Ac customed to the art of illuminating manuscripts, they had little to enlarge their style, so as to suit the de corattons applicable to their church walls. Of these, An gelico and Gozzoli were in greatest repute, the last of whom painted in a very agreeable manner, considering the age in which he lived, except that he obscured the merit of his performance by too liberal an enrichment of gilding. The old palace of the Medici at Florence, contains a cha pel painted by Gozzoli, which still remains in a state of tolerable preservation. He likewise painted at Pisa, where may be seen his picture of the drunkenness of Noah, and another of the tower of Babel. They possess considerable ease and variety in the attitudes, and are not deficient in expression. But the most remarkable of these painting monks was Fra Filippo, whose life was singularly chequer ed with adventures, considering the quiet and monotonous nature of his profession ; but the holy brother was at times disposed to be amorous, and fall in love with the subjects of his portraits. He had the misfortune to be taken by a Barbary corsair, in whose hands lie remained for some time a slave, until he thought of making a portrait of his master, which happened to be so very resembling, that the superstitious African, for fear of the consequences, lost no time in sending so great a magician back to his own country. After many romantic adventures, Fra Fi lippo ended his days by poison, as might have been ex pected from his propensities in a jealous age, for the ob jects of his admiration were often of high rank, and his addresses powerfully aided by the qualifications of great personal beauty. He painted after the manner of Masac cio, with great grace and harmony of colouring.
It was about this period that an important change took place in painting, by the introduction of oil, attributed to the invention of Jean de Bruges, or Van Eyck. Before this time, painting had been confined to fresco, and the different modifications of water colours. Andre dcl Cas tagno was the first Florentine artist who began to.use this mode of painting, having elicited the secret from a Vene tian painter, Dominic, whom he afterwards barbarously assassinated, in order to engross the whole profit of the discovery to himself.