Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/418

404 not as presented in front, but as seen in the sides and angles, to the great increase of the difficulty. Masaccio gave much more attention than had ever been bestowed by previous masters to the foreshortening of his figures and the treatment of the naked form: he had great facility of handling, and his figures, as we have said, were of the utmost simplicity. There is a picture in distemper by this master, representing Our Lady reposing in the lap of St. Anna, and holding the divine Child in her arms: it is now in Sant’ Ambrogio, in Florence, in the chapel which stands next to the door leading to the parlour of the nuns. In the church of St. Nicholas, beyond the Arno, is also a picture by Masaccio: it is in distemper and represents the Annunciation, with a house and many columns, admirably painted in perspective. The design and colouring are alike perfect, and the whole is so managed that the colonnade gradually recedes from view in a manner which proves Masaccio’s knowledge of perspective. In the Abbey of Florence, Masaccio painted a fresco on a pillar opposite to one of those which support the arch of the high altar; this represents St. Ivo of Brittany, whom the master figures as standing within a niche, that the feet might appear duly foreshortened to the spectator viewing it from below: a thing which obtained him no small commendation, as not having been so successfully practised by other masters. Beneath St. Ivo, and on the cornice below, is a crowd of beggars, widows, and orphans, to whom the saint affords help in their necessity. In the church of Santa Maria Novella there is likewise a fresco, painted by Masacchio; it represents the Trinity, with the Virgin on one side, and St. John the Evangelist on the other, who are in contemplation of Christ crucified. This picture is over the altar of St. Ignatius, and on the side walls are two figures, supposed to be the portraits of those who caused the fresco to be painted; but they are little seen, having been concealed by some gilded decorations appended over them. But perhaps the most beautiful part of this work, to say nothing of the excellence of the figures, is the coved ceiling, painted in perspective,