Traveltweeting : 2009-12-13

Studying art without visiting Florence is like learning to read without a book. Being in Florence is being in a living textbook of art history. At times the amount of beauty and art is so overwhelming that it becomes difficult to focus as you become lost in whirlpool of color, impressions, and texture. That is why it is important if your trip to Italy, and in particularly Florence, is in part to learn about and view the art, and it seems silly to suggest that it wouldn't be, that you decide ahead what art you want to focus on and know the places to find it.

Of course, you will go to the Uffici, but that is a book in it's own right. You may as I did want to explore, in a smaller space, some of the very early Renaissance artists -- the innovators who were the first to start depicting people, not as stiff, flat caricatures, but as living, emotive beings. Masaccio is certainly one of these. And it is because of Masaccio's work there that a little chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno neighborhood of Florence has been well-trodden over centuries by an endless stream of art students, masters and enthusiasts. While gazing at the walls in the Brancacci Chapel, your eyes will see what helped inspire Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo and many others.

We crossed the Arno early in the morning for the short 20-minute pilgrimage through the medieval streets where Masaccio once roamed. We had called the day before for reservations, which are mandatory, and arrived at the Piazza del Carmine about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled appointment. The large, unfinished, stone-faced facade, of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, loomed before us in stark contrast to the dazzling interior of the Chapel, whose entrance is tucked away to the right of the the church.

Prior to visiting the Chapel, we took in the 40-minute film reviewing the history of the church, the chapel and its magnificent frescos. This is well worth the time...the animated view of the panels within the chapel make for a much more enlightened visit of this Renaissance masterpiece.

The Chapel itself is tiny, and for that reason, self-tours are limited to 20 minutes . The works most of which tell the story of St. Peter were created by three artists Masaccio, Masolino and some Filippino Lippi (son of the more famous Filippo Lippo). While all the tableaus are notable, it's the Massaccio frescos that stun, especially if you realize that prior to these creations, the art world was for the most part, flat and emotionless.

You need only study what is viewed by some as the first modern painting, one that places people in a real setting with one station point, the "Tribune Money," to make your trip over the Arno worthwhile. The human beings, Masaccio depicted, using painting techniques novel for the time to create an illusion of three-dimensional space, bring you into the scene. Also, note the painstaking blending of midtones, shadows and highlights to create the flow of the silken garments, important perhaps considering Branacci, Masaccio's patron was a silk merchant. The politics of early 15th century Florence are also reflected in "Tribune Money." A new tax system to help support a war with the duke of Milan was raging, and the story of the painting provided a precedent for the debate on whether the clergy should be taxed.

Below is an outline of the frescos. The red blocks are works by Masaccio, the yellow, Masolino, the purple both Masaccio and Lippi, and the blue Lippi.

1. "Expulsion from Paradise" -- An astonishing depiction of the anguish of the first human beings after being deported from the Garden of Eden.

2. "Tribune Money"

3. "Raising of the Son of Theophilous and the Enthronement of St. Peter"

4. "Saint Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow"

5. "Saint Peter Baptizing Neophytes"

6. "Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias"

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