Jump to content

Holy Trinity (Masaccio)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 09oes (talk | contribs) at 20:49, 24 April 2010 (took out all refs to "of the matrix"; replaced interpretation that had no refs with one based on published refs). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Holy Trinity
ArtistMasaccio
Year1427
Typefresco
LocationSanta Maria Novella, Florence

The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint John and donors (Italian: Santa Trinità) is a fresco by the Early Italian Renaissance painter Masaccio. It is located in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence.

Description

This is the most celebrated work of Masaccio beside the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. Opinions vary as to exactly when this fresco was painted between 1425 and 1428. The upper part of the fresco (above the sarcophagus) was uncovered in 1858, after being hidden in the sixteenth century by a Vasari altarpiece and a stone altar; at that time it was taken off the side wall of the church and moved to the counter facade. This removal resulted in considerable damage to the fresco. The lower part was only rediscovered by Ugo Procacci in 1952; after the discovery the two parts were reassembled in their original location, where the fresco is still found today. It was most recently restored in 2000.[1]

The work was taken up by 19th century critics as a revelation of Brunelleschi's principles in architecture and the use of perspective, to the point that some believed Brunelleschi to have had a direct hand in the design of the work. When it was executed, no actual coffered barrel vault had yet been constructed since the Romans.[2]

The Trinity is noteworthy for its inspiration taken from ancient Roman triumphal arches and the strict adherence to the recent perspective discoveries, with a vanishing point at the viewer's eye level, so that, as Vasari describes it[3] "a barrel vault drawn in perspective, and divided into squares with rosettes that diminish and are foreshortened so well that there seems to be a hole in the wall." This artistic technique is called trompe l'oeil, which means "deceives the eye," in French. The fresco had a transforming effect on generations of Florentine painters and visiting artists. The sole figure without a fully-realized three-dimensional occupation of space is the majestic God supporting the Cross, considered an immeasurable being. The kneeling patrons represent another important novelty, occupying the viewer's own space, "in front of" the picture plane, which is represented by the Ionic columns and the Corinthian pilasters from which the feigned vault appears to spring; they are depicted in the traditional prayerful pose of donor portraits, but at life size, rather than the more usual small scale, and with a noteworthy attention to realism and volume.

Interpretation

Several diverse interpretations of the fresco have been proposed. Most scholars have seen it as a traditional kind of image, intended for personal devotions and commemorations of the dead, although explanations of how the painting reflects these functions differ in their details.[4] The iconography of the Trinity, flanked by Mary and John or including donors, is not uncommon in Italian art of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, and the association of the Trinity with a tomb also has precedents. No precedent for the exact iconography of Masaccio's fresco, combining all these elements, has been discovered, however. The figures of the two patrons have most often been identified as members of the Lenzi family or, more recently, a member of the Berti family of the Santa Maria Novella quarter of the city.[5] They serve as models of religious devotion for viewers but, because they are located closer to the sacred figures than the viewers are, they also lay claim to special status. The tomb consists of a sarcophagus on which lies a skeleton. "Carved" in the wall above the skeleton is an inscription: "IO FU[I] G[I]A QUEL CHE VOI S[I]ETE E QUEL CH['] I[O] SONO VO[I] A[N]C[OR] SARETE" (I once was what you are and what I am you also will be). This memento mori underlines that the painting was intended to serve as a lesson to the viewers. At the simplest level the imagery must have suggested to the 15th-century faithful that, since they all would die, only their faith in the Trinity and Christ's sacrifice would allow them to overcome their transitory existences.


According to American art historian Mary McCarthy:

The fresco, with its terrible logic, is like a proof in philosophy or mathematics, God the Father, with His unrelenting eyes, being the axiom from which everything else irrevocably flows.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ La Trinità di Masaccio: il restauro dell'anno duemila, ed. Cristina Danti, Florence, 2002.
  2. ^ Siegfried Giedion, in Space, Time and Architecture, points out that the first would be Leon Battista Alberti's interior and external barrel vaults at Sant'Andrea, Mantua, begun nearly five decades after Masaccio's premature death.
  3. ^ Le vite...:"Masaccio"
  4. ^ Ursula Schlegel, "Observations on Masaccio's Trinity Fresco in Santa Maria Novella," Art Bulletin, 45 (1963) 19-34; Otto von Simson, "Uber die Bedeutung von Masaccios Trinitätfresko in Santa Maria Novella," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 8 (1966) 119-159; Rona Goffen, "Masaccio's Trinity and the Letter to the Hebrews," Memorie domenicane, n.s/ 11 (1980) 489-504; Alessandro Cortesi, "Una lettura teologica," in La Trinità di Masaccio: il restauro dell'anno duemila, ed. Cristina Danti, Florence, 2002, 49-56; Timothy Verdon, "Masaccio's Trinity," in The Cambridge Companion to Masaccio, ed. Diane Cole Ahl, Cambridge, 2002, 158-176.
  5. ^ Rita Maria Comanducci, "'L'altare Nostro de la Trinità': Masaccio's Trinity and the Berti Family," The Burlington Magazine, 145 (2003) 14-21.
  6. ^ McCarthy, Mary (August 22, 1959). "A City of Stone". The New Yorker. New York: 48. Retrieved May 5, 2009.

Further reading

  • Jane Andrews Aiken, "The Perspective Construction of Masaccio's "Trinity" Fresco and Medieval Astronomical Graphics," Artibus et Historiae, 16 (1995) 171-187.
  • Luciano Berti, Masaccio, Milan, 1964.
  • Charles Dempsey, "Masaccio's Trinity: Altarpiece or Tomb?" Art Bulletin, 54 (1972) 279-281.
  • Rona Goffen, ed., Masaccio's Trinity (Masterpieces of Western Painting), Cambridge, 1998.
  • Edgar Hertlein, Masaccio's Trinität. Kunst, Geschichte und Politik der Frührenaissance in Florenz, Florence, 1979.
  • Paul Joannides, Masaccio & Masolino: A Complete Catalogue, London, 1983.
  • Wolfgang Kemp, "Masaccios 'Trinità' im Kontext," Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 21 (1986) 45-72
  • Alexander Perrig, "Masaccios 'Trinità' und der Sinn der Zentralperspektive," Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 21 (1986) 11-44
  • Joseph Polzer, "The Anatomy of Masaccio's Holy Trinity," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 13 (1971) 18-59.
  • Ugo Procacci, Masaccio, Florence, 1980.
  • Dominique Raynaud, "Linear perspective in Masaccio's Trinity fresco:Demonstration or self-persuasion?" Nuncius, 17 (2003) 331-344.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holy_Trinity_(Masaccio)&oldid=358077672"