I love art! Brancacci Chapel

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My beautiful art day in Florence ends with the Brancacci Chapel. I hope you will appreciate this monuments and their ancient splendour.

To be an “art expert” is not necessary in a city like Florence that still managed to look amazingly romantic and picturesque.

The Brancacci Chapel, an important example of Renaissance painting in Florence, stands within the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno area. Its fame can be mainly attributed to the series of frescoes created over time by the hands of Masolino, Masaccio and Filippo Lippi.

Completed at the end of the fourteenth century, this chapel was commissioned by Felice Brancacci, a wealthy fabrics merchant and Florentine ambassador in Egypt. The task of frescoing the chapel was given to fifteenth century painter Masolino, who was later assisted by young Masaccio. When Masaccio moved from Florence to Rome in 1428, the frescoes were completed in the late fifteenth century by the late Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi.

The Capella Brancacci came out miraculously unscathed from the fire in 1771, whereas the church was completely destroyed. The frescoes were only blackened by the soot, however following meticulous restoration work, today the frescoes can once again be admired in all their splendour.

The series of frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel were aimed at highlighting the Church's role in human redemption. The frescoes depict twelve different scenes representing Original Sin and the story of St. Peter's life and miracles, to which the Church's history is closely linked. The story begins at the bottom and ends at the top and episodes alternate between the wall on the right and the one on the left.

If you look closely at the frescoes, you will be able to spot the differences in the various artists' styles, as well as the various stages of Italian art. For example, Masolino's frescoes, such as the Resurrection of Tobias', the figures are delicate and the style is in line with the late-gothic elegance and affectation of that time.

If you then look at Masaccio's dramatic depiction of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise', the style is completely different and clearly Renaissance: Adam and Eve are highly realistic, charged with worldly passion and feeling and have solid, natural bodies in line with the use of the principles of perspective. Massaccio's art in fact are the foundations of early Renaissance Italian painting which inspired artists such as Raffaello, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.



I have to decide my next travel destination, any suggestions??

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