Great Thinkers in Math
Masaccio
Self Portrait (detail),
1424, Brancacci Chapel
in the Church of Santa
Maria del Carmine,
Florence
The Influence of Mathematical Perspective on the
Western canon of Painting
Presented by Erin McCarthy, Sarah Parrish and Marion Paxton
Masaccio
(b. 1401, San Giovanni Valdarno, d. 1428, Roma)
• Born Tommaso Cassai or in some accounts Tommaso
di Ser Giovanni di Mone.
• He was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period
of the Italian Renaissance. His frescoes are the earliest
monuments of Humanism, and introduce a plasticity
previously unseen in figure painting.
• The name Masaccio is a humorous version of
Tommaso, meaning "big", "fat", "clumsy" or "messy" Tom.
• He had a profound influence on other artists. He was
one of the first to use scientific perspective in his
painting, employing techniques such as vanishing point
in art for the first time.
(He also moved away from the Gothic style and elaborate
ornamentation of artists like Gentile da Fabriano to a
more natural mode that employed perspective for
greater realism)
Mathematical Perspective
• Scientific and mathematical breakthrough came with a generation of
artist-intellectuals born in the late 14th and early 15th century.
• The architect, painter and sculptor Brunelleschi was credited as "the inventor
or the re-discoverer of perspective" (its theoretical and practical roots went
back to antiquity). Brunelleschi (1413) is credited with the first correct
formulation of linear perspective. He understood that there should be a single
vanishing point to which all parallel lines in a plane, other than the plane of
the canvas, converge.
Mathematical Perspective and Art
“Holy Trinity” 1427
Brancacci Chapel in S.
Maria del Carmine,
Florence
• Linear perspective in turn had enormous implications for architectural drawing
and design, not to mention illusionistic theatrical scene painting.
• Masaccio created the first surviving monuments to the new science.
•The successful perspective rendering of the classical
architectural setting of Masaccio's "Trinity" was a
major factor in establishing it as a landmark in the
history of painting.
Masaccio’s “Holy Trinity”
• Masaccio's Trinity, painted for S. Maria Novella in
Florence around 1427, is usually considered to be the
oldest surviving perspective painting.
• It is considered Masaccio’s most mature work. We see a
pyramid of figures topped by God, who holds the cross.
The holy spirit is represented by the dove. St. John the
Baptist on the right and the Madonna is on the left.
The Madonna looks directly at us and presents Christ
to us. The figures frame Christ, in the center.
• Masaccio is said to have consulted with Brunelleschi on
this painting. He used a grid framework, tooled right
into the surface, and very rigorous linear perspective.
Even the nails are shown in perspective! He placed the
vanishing point at the Mound of Golgotha, or Cavalry,
the place outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was
crucified, at the eye level of an average person. He
probably felt that the illusion of depth would be greatest
with the viewer right on the centric ray.
How was Perspective used in Painting?
“Tribute Money” 1425 Brancacci Chapel in S. Maria del Carmine in Florence
• In addition to spatial organization and illusion of depth and a structural focus,
perspective can provide narrative focus. Since the eye invariably travels to the
vanishing point of a picture, Renaissance artists did not hesitate to put something
important at or near that point.
• Masaccio's use of perspective is clearest in his frescos for the Brancacci Chapel in S.
Maria del Carmine in Florence, which illustrate scenes from the lives of St. Peter
and St. Paul. In particular, his Tribute Money shows the confrontation of temporal
and spiritual authority, and shows clear and effective use of perspective.
• Perspective not only provides a visual structure for the painting, but a narrative
focus, by having the vanishing point at Christ's head.