Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/114

 V

MASACCIO

1401-1428

" the days of Giotto, paintings declined again, because every one imitated the pictures that were already in existence, and thus it went on until Tommaso of Florence, surnamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect works how they who take any teacher but Nature—the mistress of all masters—labour in vain." In these words Leonardo expressed his sense of Masaccio's greatness, and showed how correctly he estimated this master's position in Florentine art. For this youth, who died at twenty-six, and never succeeded in attaining ease or fortune in his lifetime, brought to art a genius as rare as Giotto's, a gift as divine as that of Raphael. During the few short years that he lived, harassed with debts and crippled by poverty, he altered the whole course of Florentine painting, and left a heritage of immortal works to be the school of great masters in future generations.

The little certain information that we have regarding Masaccio's history is due to the famous law first proposed by Rinaldo degli Albizzi and Niccolo di Uzzano, and sanctioned by the Signory in 1427, by which every Florentine citizen was required to make a declaration of his property and income, and to pay a tax of half