Masaccio, Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Guidi (1401–c. 1428)

Florentine painter, one of the major figures of the early Italian Renaissance. His frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence (1425–28) show a decisive break with traditional styles. He was the first painter to apply the scientific laws of perspective, newly discovered by the architect Brunelleschi, and achieved a sense of space and volume that gives his pictures a sculptural quality.

Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel include scenes from the life of St Peter, notably The Tribute Money, and a moving account of Adam and Eve's Expulsion from Paradise. They have a monumental grandeur, without trace of Gothic decorative detail, unlike the work of his colleague and teacher Masolino da Panicale. Marking a return to the style of Giotto, Masaccio's figures have solidity and weight and are clearly set in three-dimensional space.

Other works by Masaccio are the Trinity about 1428 (Santa Maria Novella, Florence) and the polyptych for the Carmelite church in Pisa in 1426 (divided between National Gallery, London; Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). Although brief, his career marks a turning point in Italian art.