Masaccio

Masaccio's paintings give sacred figures physical weight through light, shadow, and a carefully organized sense of space. In the Brancacci Chapel, where he worked alongside Masolino, biblical events unfold among solid figures and recognizable architectural settings. The Tribute Money links successive moments of Saint Peter's story through gesture, with a broad landscape holding the composition together. The Holy Trinity uses perspective to create the appearance of a deep chapel within a flat church wall, placing sacred figures and kneeling donors in a shared architectural framework. His Virgin and Child for the Carmine church in Pisa formed the center of a larger altarpiece assembled from several panels. Painted in egg tempera on wood, it combines a substantial stone throne with music-making angels and the infant Christ reaching toward grapes held by Mary.