Tommasco di Giovanni di Simone Guidi Masaccio
(1401 - 1428) |
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innovative use of linear and aerial perspective Art Work
| Name: |
Tommasco di Giovanni di Simone Guidi Masaccio |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
San Giovanni Valdarro, Arezzo, Italy |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1401 |
| Death: |
1428 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
innovative use of linear and aerial perspective |
| Medium: |
Fresco |
| Method: |
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| Style: |
Early Italian Renaissance |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Masaccio was one of the most important painters of the fifteenth century and a founder of Renaissance painting. His nickname "Masaccio" means "clumsy Tom" and was given to him when he joined one of the craft guilds in Florence as a child. Little is known about his early training, but he was the first painter to use the effects of light and tone in his work to make them appear more solid. He moved away from the Gothic style and elaborate adornment to a more naturalistic approach. His use of expressive faces and positions was groundbreaking. After seeing works by the great Florentine sculptors Donatello and Nanni di Banco, the paintings of Giotto, and the early works of Filippo Brunelleschi, he developed new techniques to depict the illusion of perspective. In 1422 he enrolled in the painters'guild, the Arte dei Medtci e Speztaii, in Florence. From 1424 he worked with his older colleague Masolino on the decoration of the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence and the following year on an altarpiece in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. In these works he applied his innovative methods to show linear perspective. This was achieved to startling effect in 1428 when he unveiled his The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St. John, and Two Donors (1426-1428) in Santa Maria Novella. The fresco marks the first use of systematic linear perspective. Onlookers thought he had knocked a hole in the wall of the church as the painting appeared so three-dimensional. Despite his brief career, he had a profound influence on other artists, particularly Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Masaccio died in the autumn of 1428; according to legend, he was fatally poisoned by a jealous rival painter. |
Samples of Work
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