Hidden inside the otherwise unassuming church of Santa Maria del Carmine on the southern side of the Arno in Florence, the Brancacci Chapel holds one of the most important fresco cycles in the entire history of western art. Painted in the 1420s by Masaccio and Masolino and completed half a century later by Filippino Lippi, the chapel is considered the cradle of Italian Renaissance painting. The chapel was commissioned by Felice Brancacci, a wealthy Florentine merchant and diplomat, who engaged the workshop of the older painter Masolino da Panicale around 1424. Masolino brought in the much younger Masaccio as his collaborator, and within a few years the bulk of the cycle had been painted, depicting scenes from the life of Saint Peter, with the Expulsion of Adam and Eve on a side wall as an opening preface. Masaccio contribution shifted the course of Italian painting. His grasp of perspective, his understanding of light falling on figures from a single source and his use of foreshortening and weight gave his figures a solidity that had not been seen since classical antiquity. The Tribute Money, with Saint Peter and the tax collector by the lake, is held up as one of the founding works of the new style. When Felice Brancacci was exiled from Florence in 1436, the chapel was left unfinished and remained so for fifty years. Filippino Lippi, son of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi and pupil of Sandro Botticelli, completed the cycle in the 1480s with such skill that visitors often have difficulty telling where his work begins and Masaccio leaves off, though close inspection reveals stylistic differences. A careful restoration in the 1980s removed centuries of soot and overpainting from the frescoes, recovering the bright original colours and the sharp anatomical detail. Adam and Eve fleeing the gates of paradise, restored to their original nakedness after centuries beneath added fig leaves, are now among the most photographed Renaissance figures in the city. The chapel is approached separately from the main church and entry is limited to small groups for short periods to protect the frescoes, with booking recommended. The reward is the chance to stand in the small space where, for many art historians, the Italian Renaissance found its first complete voice.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Piazza del Carmine 14, Florence, Italy