Masaccio's Trinity "Up Close"

The church of Santa Maria Novella holds, among many artworks, Masaccio’s Trinity, which in 1427, was said to be the first example of single point perspective in painting. However, his earlier work in The Brancacci Chapel, made extensive use of perspective as well.

Remarkably, this fresco was lost. Around 1568, Cosimo I, then Duke of Florence, commissioned Giorgio Vasari to redecorate the church and this fresco was white washed and lost until 1859. Vasari left the fresco intact and constructed a new altar and screen in front of Masaccio's painting, leaving a small gap, effectively protecting the earlier work. This is the same method he used in The Palazzo Vecchio to protect Leonardo’s “Battle of Anghiari.” Trinity was rediscovered when Vasari's altar was dismantled during renovations in 1859. The Crucifixion, the upper part, was then hidden again! It was not until one hundred years later that it was rediscovered. It was first restored and moved back in 1954.

Masaccio’s creation must have looked like a 3D movie to the people of the quattrocento. Masaccio used ropes and incised lines as a guide to ensure that the orthogonals hit the vanishing point. All in all, the fresco required 27 giornate, or 27 days of plastering and painting. From The Italian Giornato, which meant the six or seven hours one could paint before the plaster dried.

The sarcophagus was never moved. It reads, in Latin; “What you are, I was once; what I am, you will be.”

No one knows who the donors are but the star of the attraction is the viewer as The Virgin, for the first time in art, breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at you. It is thought that Masaccio’s friend Brunelleschi had a hand in the design of the Roman triumphal arch, with coffered ceiling, barrel vault, pilasters, and columns.

This is a great year for Masaccio with the restoration of The Trinity and The Brancacci Chapel. Take a look for my film on the latter on “Art and Travel by Dave.”