Art 6h Masaccio

Hi, my name is Ibrahim Daplass and I was assigned the tribute money painted by Masaccio. Masaccio biography. Masaccio or Tommaso di Sergiovani was born on December 21st 1401 in a town near Florence. He began painting at 17 years old. He was named Masaccio because he means clumsy Tom. Masaccio really cared only about his paintings. He didn't care about anything else, which is why they called him clumsy Tom. His style was gothic at first since he imitated his master Mussolini's style, but changed into a monumental style. He had a short career and died at 27. After he died, he left a legacy. Many well-known artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael were all influenced by him. Masaccio is seen as one of the most important figures during the early Renaissance. We will be looking at his fresco, the tribute money, which is a painting of a biblical scene. This painting is located at the Brancacci Chapel and it is said to have been painted between 1425 and 1427. This painting is a narrative, meaning that it tells a story. In the middle of the painting, we see Jesus and his 12 disciples being confronted by a man wearing orange clothes. The man in the orange clothes is a tax collector who is asking Jesus to pay for him. All of his disciples are standing around Jesus waiting for him and look a bit worried if you look closely at their faces. Jesus, on the other hand, looks confident and he points towards the fish in the water and he tells one of his disciples, St. Peter, to catch a fish. Jesus claims that the fish will have coins in its mouth. That is why we see St. Peter in the back left by the water. He's the one trying to catch the fish. After he catches the fish, we see St. Peter again on the right side and he is paying a tax collector with the coins he got from the fish. This narrative was specifically a miracle that Jesus performed. When we begin to observe the painting, we see many artistic techniques. We see Masaccio use shadows. When he uses the shadows, it creates a 3D sense and it shows him that it's more than just a 2D painting. He utilized naturalism too since the background is filled with the outdoors. We see clouds and mountains and trees and there's also linear perspective because of the mountains and the building. The mountain and the building create a sense of depth. There's also aerial perspective when looking at the mountains. As the mountains become further and further away, they get paler and paler. We also see some symbols in the painting. We see gold circular objects above Jesus and the disciples head. This could be a symbol of a halo representing holiness. The tax collectors can also be a symbol. They could be a symbol of our human greed. The whole painting could also be a symbol because one of the things I learned when researching this painting was that around 1423, Pope Martin the fifth said it was okay to tax the Florentine Church. Masaccio painted this in 1425 to 1427 so he could have taken inspiration from what Pope Martin said was that you could tax the Florentine Church. He probably took his own spin. That probably motivated him into painting this. Personally, I really like the painting. It embodies the phrase the picture is worth a thousand words because of how the story is told. It is told all together in one panel. We see the tax collector approaching Jesus. We see Jesus tell St. Peter to get the money from the fish and then he ends up paying the tax collector. All of it comes in and ties into each other and it isn't that hard to understand. You can see how everything plays out. My sources were the National Gallery of Art, the arthistory.org, smarthistory.org, and the book we are using for the class which is Gardener's Art to the Ages, the Western Perspective, 16th edition, volume 2. Thank you for your time.