Renaissance

Masaccio

Masaccio (1401–1428) was the revolutionary young genius who launched the Renaissance in painting, mastering linear perspective and natural, weighty figures. He achieved all this and died at just 27.

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1401–1428 · Early Renaissance painter

Every Renaissance master who followed — from Leonardo to Michelangelo — learned from Masaccio's solid, believable space.

Creator story

Surprising fact

His fresco The Holy Trinity used mathematically exact perspective so convincingly that the painted vault looks like a real chapel cut into the wall.

Source: Wikipedia / Wikimedia

Portrait of Masaccio — Portrait: Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia.

Brought scientific perspective and real weight to painting.
His Brancacci Chapel frescoes became a school for later masters.
A revolutionary genius who died at only 27.

Key works

A key work by Masaccio

These works make it easiest to see how the artist changed form, content, and the very way art could exist in culture.

1420

Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity shows how Masaccio turns the language of renaissance into a coherent monumental image.