Page:Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, 1887, vol 3.djvu/256

 MASO and completed by Filippino Lippi, and that of them Masaccio painted nine only, name- ly : Expulsion from Eden, St. Peter healing Tabitha and curing the Cripple at the Gate of the Temple ; Seeking of the Tribute Money and its payment by St. Peter ; The Expulsion ; Sermon of St. Peter (?); St. Pe- ter Baptizing ; Distribution of Alms ; SS. Peter and John curing the Sick ; Resurrec- tion of the Child and St. Peter in Cathedra, partly executed by Filippino Lippi. This takes from Masaccio two of the finest works in the chapel the Crucifixion of St. Peter, and the Arraignment of SS. Peter and Paul before the Proconsul both painted by Filip- pino Lippi, and therefore to some extent diminishes his glory. It, however, leaves him enough to entitle him to be considered the greatest painter of his time, and to be called the father of modern art, through careful study of the human form, and inves- tigation of the laws of light and shade which govern relief, as well as of the management of drapery in broad masses ; he rescued painting from medievalism, and gave an im- pulse which finally brought the art to that perfection which it afterwards attained in the hands of Raphael. Each event repre- sented by Masaccio is like a scene upon the stage where the actors are grouped with due regard to effect. Many of the heads are portraits, and all the figures are studied from life in a naturalistic spirit, which faith- fully renders the costumes worn by the men and women of the time. Even Raphael did not disdain to take Masaccio's noble group of Adam and Eve driven from Paradise as a model when he treated the same subject in the Vatican. The few other extant works of Masaccio are : Fragment of a Procession, cloister of the Carmine ; The Trinity be- tween the Virgin and St. John the Evangel- ist, with two donors, S. M. Novella (much injured) ; Conception, Florence Academy ; and portrait of himself (?), perhaps by Filip- pino Lippi, Uffizi ; Adoration of the Magi, Diptych with Martyrdom of SS. Peter and John the Baptist, Berlin Museum. C. & C., Italy, i. 519 ; Vasari, e'd. Mil., ii. 287, 305 ; Layard, The Brancacci Chapel, Arun- del Society (1868); Dohme, 2i.; Ch. Blanc, J5cole florentine ; Baldinucci, i. 460 ; Burck- hardt, 529 ; Lttbke, Gesch. ital. Mai., i. 285, 290 ; Zeitschr. f. b. K, xi. 225 ; xii. 175. MASO. See Giotlino. MASOLINO DA PANICALE, born at Panicale in 1383, died in Florence in Oct. (buried, 18th), 1440. Florentine school ; real name Tommaso di Cristofano di Fino ; pupil of Gherardo da Stamina, and probably master of Masaccio. Vasari confounds him with Maso di Cristoforo Braccii, and his ac- count is therefore untrustworthy. Masolino had no hand in the famous frescos of the Brancacci Chapel. He was admitted into the guild of the Physicians and Apotheca- ries in Florence in 1423, and shortly after- wards entered the service of Pippo Spani, Obergespann of Temcswar, Hungary. Af- ter Spani's death (1427) he returned to Italy, and executed, about 1428, for Cardinal Cas- tiglione, a series of frescos in the Church of Castiglione di Olona and in the adjoining baptistery. These, which were unknown to Vasari, were lately rescued from whitewash and are signed with his name. Those in the choir represent events in the lives of the Virgin, and of SS. Lawrence and Stephen, to whom the church is dedicated. With no little religious sentiment, which is at times so expressed as to recall Fra Angelico, with a conscientious care for details of form and composition and a system of architectural and figure arrangement which has no little analogy with that of his great pupil, Masac- cio, Masolino elaborated detail at the expense of breadth, and made solitary figures unduly prominent. His compositions are monoto- nous, both on account of lack of variety in arrangement and the absence of contrast in light and shade. His heads are character- istic, and his extremities carefully studied from nature. In the frescos of the baptis- tery at Castiglione, which represent scenes in the life of St. John, the faces are excellent and the action is weak. Considerable bold- 214