Holy Trinity (Masaccio)

The Holy Trinity
Artist	Masaccio
Year	c.1426-1428
Type	fresco
Dimensions	667 cm × 317 cm (263 in × 125 in)
Location	Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint John and donors (

The Trinity is thought to have been created by Masaccio between 1425–1427. He died in late 1428 at the age of 26, or having just turned 27, leaving behind a relatively small body of work. ^[citation needed]

Location

The fresco is located along the middle of the basilica's left aisle. Although the configuration of this space has changed since the artwork was created, there are clear indications that the fresco was aligned very precisely in relationship with the sight-lines and perspective arrangement of the room at the time; particularly a former entrance-way facing the painting; in order to enhance the trompe-l'œil effect. There was also an altar, mounted as a shelf-ledge between the upper and lower sections of the fresco, further emphasizing the "reality" of the artifice.^{[citation needed]}

Commissioners and donors

Not much is known about the details of the commission; no contemporaneous documents naming the altar-piece's patron(s) have been found. The two

The leading theories as to their identity favor two local families; either the Lenzi or, for at least one of the figures, a member of the Berti, who were a working-class family from the Santa Maria Novella quarter of Florence. Records of the Berti family, discovered in 2012, indicate that they owned a tomb at the foot of the fresco.[2] Other sources mention a Lenzi tomb near the altar, with the inscription "Domenico di Lenzo, et Suorum 1426", as well as other Lenzi decorations in the chapel at that time, and theorize the donor portraits were posthumous images of Domenico (and his spouse?). In the Florentine dating system of that time, the new year began on March 25; and factoring in the conversion from Julian to Gregorian calendars Domenico's death, as recorded, would have been on 19 January 1427.^{[citation needed]}

It has been hypothesized that

Restoration was done to the Crucifixion section of the painting at that time, to replace missing areas of the design; mostly architectural details around the perimeter of the work. While the painting was in damaged condition when rediscovered, it is also likely that further damage was caused by the transfer from plaster to canvas.^[citation needed]

In the 20th century, the cadaver tomb portion of the work was rediscovered in situ, and the two halves were re-united in their original location in 1952. Leonetto Tintori undertook restoration work on the combined whole during 1950–1954.^{[citation needed]}

Charles de Tolnay believed that the lower part of the fresco did not match the upper part in terms of style. Other experts assumed later changes in part of the painting or the loss of some parts, which creates the impression of fragmentation.^{[citation needed]}

Description

Dimensions

The painting is approximately 317 cm (125 in) wide, and 667 cm (263 in) high. This gives an overall vertical-to-horizontal proportion of about 2:1. The ratio between the upper and lower sections of the work is very roughly 3:1.

Altar

Originally, the design included an actual ledge, used as an altar, physically projecting outward from the now-blank band between the upper and lower sections of the fresco; further enhancing the sense of depth and reality in the work. Constructed as a pillared-shelf ~5 ft. above the floor, and estimated to be about 60 cm. wide, the altar-table's appearance would have been intended to match and/or complement the painted architecture. Its facing-edge and upper surface integrating with the fresco's steps and archway; and its supporting pillars, both real and illusory, combining with the shadows caused by the over-hang to create a crypt-like effect for the tomb beneath. The upper section of the fresco still retains traces of candle-smoke and heat-effects from use of this altar.^{[citation needed]}

Figures

The painted figures are roughly life-sized. For an adult of average height facing the painting, the line of sight would have been slightly above 'ground-level' in the work; with Death in the form of the crypt and skeleton directly front of them, and the promise of Salvation above.^{[citation needed]}

The architectural details painted on the wall (cornice, archivolts of arches, capitals) are brightly painted. The figures of the donors are located at the level of the viewer’s horizon and they are depicted from the perspective from below, and then, rising, the figures increase in size, according to their symbolic meaning, at the same time, as it were, moving deeper into the space of an imaginary chapel, the coffered vault of which is given in a strong perspective from below. The sarcophagus with the skeleton, although it occupies the lower part of the composition, on the contrary, is visible from above, as if located in a crypt under the floor of the church.^{[citation needed]}

Damaging and restoring

Over the course of time and events (see above), the fresco has been damaged and subsequently restored. Much of the outer edge of the upper section, mainly architectural detail, is replacement work. Some regions of "new" paint can be clearly identified by differences in colour, visual texture and detail; and in certain places, by apparent "cracks" along the boundary between the original fresco surface, and areas of the design where the original surface is entirely absent and was repainted.^{[citation needed]}

Lower section

The lower section, which depicts a skeleton in a tomb as a memento mori, has also lost significant paint. By this time^Ref?, "standard practice" in restoration had become more conservative, with a stronger emphasis on preserving and revealing the authentic work of the original artist; whereas earlier restorations tended to have more focus on producing an aesthetically pleasing "recreation" of the artwork.^{[citation needed]}

Notable characteristics

The Trinity is noteworthy for its inspiration taken from ancient Roman triumphal arches and the strict adherence to recently developed perspective techniques, with a vanishing point at the viewer's eye level,^[4] so that, as Vasari describes it "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."^[5] The effect of the correct perspectival projection may be called trompe-l'œil, 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 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 on the same scale as the central figures, rather than the more usual 'diminution', and with noteworthy attention to realism and volume.^{[citation needed]}

Masaccio placed the horizon line across the floor between the two donors. Orthogonal lines fan geometrically upward and outward into what becomes the angles and dimensions of the slightly diagonal lines of the coffers of the

Interpretation

External videos
Masaccio's Holy Trinity, Smarthistory[8]
Empire of the Eye: The Magic of Illusion: The Trinity-Masaccio, Part 2, National Gallery of Art, Washington[9]

Masaccio's fresco is a sacra conversazione, a popular type of Renaissance religious imagery that portrayed contemporary people in scenes with holy or sacred figures. 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.^[10] The iconography of the Trinity, flanked by Mary and John or including donors, is not uncommon in Italian art of the late 14th and early 15th 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 Florence.^[2] 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

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.[11]

See also

• List of major paintings by Masaccio

Notes

Includes material taken from the Italian wikipedia version of this article

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trinity (Masaccio).

• 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.

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