Italian artist Masaccio: pictures and biography of the creator

Italians have always been one of the brightest and most significant representatives of different areas of art - from painting to architecture. Quattrocento is the most famous period in the history of Italian culture. The Italian Masaccio is a representative of this era and deserves attention for a variety of reasons.

early years

The Florentine artist named Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Cassay became famous under the pseudonym Masaccio. The future great painter was born in the small town of San Giovanni Valdarno, near Florence, on December 21, 1401. His childhood was not too happy - the boy was only five years old when his father died. The head of the family was only 27 years old. The owner of the small hotel, Masaccio's mother, was again married - her new choice was a local pharmacist. When Tommaso was sixteen, his stepfather also died. So he became the main breadwinner. Contemporaries note that Tommazo was remarkably soft and kind, but he did not pay too much attention to comfort and his clothes, which made him nicknamed "awkward" - this is the pseudonym of Masaccio in Italian.

Start date

At seventeen, he went to study painting in Florence. There are different opinions about who became his mentor. Some historians believe that he studied with Mariotto di Cristofano and Masolino da Panicale, but such a theory is not confirmed in the chronology and technique of Tommaso - his work does not bear a trace of their influence. It is more likely that he became a disciple of Bicci di Lorenzo, and also communicated with Donatello and Brunelleschi, the greatest masters of sculpture and architecture of those times.

The heyday of career and death

In 1424, Masaccio's paintings gained real popularity. The artist became a member of the guild of St. Luke, an organization that united Florentine masters, and began collaborating with Mazolino. The latter was very famous - his technique was popular with contemporaries, and the style of aristocratic Gothic with elegant religious fairy-tale was one of the key for the first half of the fifteenth century, so cooperation with him was a success for Masaccio. Pictures of the young apprentice influenced the work of the famous master Mazolino - a unique situation when the student changed the manner of the teacher's work. Unfortunately, the talented Florentine was not destined to live long - like his father, Tommaso died at 27 years old. The cause of the death is unknown - the historian Vasari's assumption about a possible poisoning was subsequently refuted, and other documents about this event were not preserved. It is only known that it happened in Rome and that the fellow artists considered it a crushing loss - the corresponding mark can be found in the records of Brunelleschi.

Work in collaboration with Masolino

During the apprenticeship of the more eminent Florentine, the most famous paintings of Masaccio appeared. For example, the painting "Madonna and Child with Saint Anne", about which there are still disputes, experts find it difficult to establish who is the author. The painting was created around 1424 for the church of Sant'Ambrogio. According to art historian Roberto Longhi, Masolino created most of the picture. Masaccio painted the Madonna with the baby and the right angel supporting the curtain, and the rest belong to the brush of his teacher, who ordered the canvas. The original feature of the work is a new composition. Finds of Masaccio can be traced in incredible spatial depth and unusual positions of bodies.

The artist's works in fresco technique

The most revered contribution in Florence to the art of Masaccio, whose paintings became a breakthrough in the art of those times, was made in a fresco manner. They became the basis of his heritage. The best pictures of Mazaccio with the names "The Baptism of New Conversations" and "Miracle with the Statue" were made for the Santa Maria del Carmine Chapel. They were ordered by the famous Florentine Felice Brancacci. The condition of the frescoes greatly deteriorated in the fire of 1771, but in 1988 they were restored, and now they can be seen in their original form.

A separate mention deserves a picture of Masaccio "Expulsion from Paradise". It was for the first time that a human body with correct anatomical details was depicted. Previously, people were depicted with feet that did not touch the ground. Very differently portrayed Eve and Adam Masaccio. Paintings "Miracle with a statue" and "Madonna tickling a baby" also quite realistically depict people, their composition is filled with dynamics and looks very convincingly. In addition, in the first painter broke another canon - scenes of what is happening do not go one after another, although everything remains obvious. The amazing sense of perspective and the ability to create a voluminous air space, not least, became the reasons why Masaccio, whose paintings delight people even now, is considered one of the main creators of Quattrocento.