Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/125

1428] exertion, he takes the coin from the mouth of the fish, and the air of mingled dignity and contempt with which he hands the money to the extortionate official. The superb modelling of the heads, the admirable foreshortening of the figures, and the skilful distribution of light and shade all excite our admiration. But the finest thing in the picture is the calm and majestic form of Christ, and the quiet authority of his manner, as with outstretched arms he turns to Peter and utters his word of command. Few figures in Italian art have ever rivalled this conception, and when in his cartoons Raphael had a similar scene to represent, he went back to Masaccio once more for his inspiration.

Masaccio had already introduced his master Masolino's portrait in the fresco of the Apostle Healing the Sick, and now he painted his own likeness in the young apostle standing next to the portico on the right of the tax-gatherer, "a form so life-like," says Vasari, "that it seems to live and breathe."

The last subject of the series is the Raising of the King's Son, a miracle recorded in the Golden Legend. The scene is laid in the court of the king's palace at Antioch, and St. Paul is in the act of bidding the dead child arise, in the presence of his father Theophilus, who is seated on his throne. Masaccio left this fresco unfinished, and the group of spectators on the left was chiefly painted by Filippino sixty years later; but we recognise Masaccio's hand in the central portion of the subject, and the figure of St. Peter receiving the homage of the king and his courtiers, as related in the Golden Legend. The design of the whole composition is evidently due to him, and the skill with which he