What Is Masaccio Holy Trinity

Masaccio's "Holy Trinity" is one of the most intellectually and deeply moving pictures ever painted. Located in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, it is remarkable for its early naturalism which initiated the Renaissance painting style, but also for the way it incorporates the material world with deep metaphysical significance. The "Holy Trinity" is both the most rational and mysterious of images in that it creates the convincing illusion of space within a painting. Tommaso di Giovanni, called Masaccio, was born in San Giovanni Valdarno on the day of St. John Thomas, for whom he was named. Giovanni Cassai, his father, dies when Massaccio was five years old. His mother remarried and his stepsister's husband, Mariotto di Christofano,
took him on as an apprentice. Local villagers gave him the cruel nickname of Masaccio because in Italian, it means "Ugly Tom". This may have come about because he was a big awkward man who cared very little about his appearance. His hair and beard were long and unruley and would often wear the same shirt and pants that would be covered by food stains and paint drippings for months at a time. Masaccino's personal life was a comination of being sad, full of adventure, disorderly or agitated, quarelsom and changeable. When he was 20, he went to Florence and soon joined the most modern and prominent artist group there which was headed by sculptor-architect Filippo Brumelleschi and the sculptor Donatello. Together they developed a new art of space and form. Masaccio was able to transform anatomical realism and crucial moments in human relationships into paintings. This was accomplished by using realistic contrasts of light, shade and continuous luminous color. The "Holy Trinity" was created by Masaccio between 1425 and 1427; and is one of his last major masterpieces and is considered one of his best. The painting is approximately 317 cm (125 in) wide and 667 cm (263 in) in height. The fresco is located along the middle of the basilica's left aisle where it was aligned precisely in relationship with the sight-lines and arrangement of the room; particurally a former entrance way facing the painting to enhance the optical illusion effect. There was also an alter that was mounted as a shelf-ledge between the upper and lower sections which emphasized the "realty" of the masterpiece. This enhanced the sense of depth.
The "Holy Trinity" is noteworthy for its inspiration taken from the ancient Roman arches and the recently developed technique by using a vanishing point at the viewer's eye level. With the way the vault was drawn and divided into squares with rosettas that dimish and are foreshortened, it appears as if a room has been cut into the wall and Jesus and God in right in front of the viewer. This technique is called trompe l'oeil which means "deceives the eye" in French. The title of the painting comes from the three key figures; Christ on the cross, God the Father standing on a ledge behind Christ, and the Holy Spirit which is symbolozied by a white dove. Masaccio put everything on common level. The painted figures are roughly life-size. For an average person, their eye-line view would have been above ground level with Death in the form of the crypt and skeleton directly in front and the promise it Salvation above. The figure behind Jesus on the cross represents God. Prior to the Renissance it was unheard of to actually paint God. What expressed humansim was the face he painted God with the resemblence to a man. Not only did he
do this, but aslo painted God to look like what he thought God would look like; not as a force or power or something abstract. He painted God as a man who stands, weighs something, was capable of walking, and was of flesh and blood. One can actually see one of God's feet as he is standing in the picture supporting the cross during the cruxifition and appears to be looking out from the painting as if he was trying to tell us the Jesus suffers for our sins and is going to die. Even though Masaccio painted God to look like a man, he also left room the supernatural phenomenon by having him stand on the narrow ledge attached to the back wall of the vaulted space which appeared deep, while at the same time was at the front supporting the body of his Son on the cross. This allows the perspective that allows God to be in more than one place at a time making the painting have realism. Jesus dominates the painting with his appearance because he is nailed to the cross for his cruxifition as his body hangs. His position was eye-catching as he sets the scene of the paiting and attracts attention most prominently. Jesus also has a brighter skin colour that is a contrast to the rather darker and mor saturated colours of his surroundings. His look brings about the thought of sadness causing the painting to create a sudden very serious atmosphere. At the base of the cross is the Virgin Mary on the left and St. John on the right. The Virgin Mary wears a large black robe with her hand uplifted as if she is presenting Jesus saying, "Look what you have done". St. John's robe is red. One step down are Masaccio's donors to either side also dressed in black and red robes with hands in prayer. The donor portraits included in the fresco have not been positively identified, but were probably Florentines who either funded the work, relatives or close friends. The donors did not have halos like God, Christ, the Virgin Mary and St. John had and were meant to be in the space of the viewer and not in the recessed space in which the cross is located. While the four people on the ground were dressed in red and black as they were symboloical colours. Red is the colour of the sacrifical blood Jesues and of his followers while black sympolizes the death. God has both both united in his robe. Red can also mean life and since God wears both readn and black, he also represents life and death simultaneously. Looking closely to the alignment of the figures, they appear to be in a kind of pyramidal shape which is similar to composition of many other Renaissance works. Moving down to the fresco, one can see a skeleton in a tomb at the bottom. This part had been covered over for many years, and it was not until recently that it was uncovered. The tomb is meant to appear as an outward projection but also recesses near the area where a skeleton lies on his back symbolizing death. It if thought that perhaps the skeleton represents Adam because in the tale of Adam and Eve, the forbidden fruit is the death. Above the skeleton is an inscription that transleates to "What you are I once was; what I am, you will be". The message projects out telling of our own mortality and future death. In the end, we will end up like the skeleton as well, but when we look above we see a message of hope in the Crucifixion which means freedom from death for believers. Originally, there was an actual altar that gave the appearance of a table that was supported the the pillars, both real and illusionary, combing with the shadows caused the over-hang to create a crypt-like effect for the tomb beneath. The upper section of the paiting still retains traces of candle-smoke and heat-effects from the use of the alter. The architecture in which the Crucifixon takes place is also significant.
What we see looks like a Roman triumphal arch with a correred ceiling, barrel vault, pilaster and columns. This type of construction indicates the type of interest that Masaccio had in antique buildings in the Roman empire. One of the most signifcant aspects of this fresco is the way he made the use of one-point linear perspective to convey the sense that the images receded back in space. The coffers on the ceiling create the lines and the vanishing point at the base of the cross. This creates the sence that the space is actually a continuation of the chapel space in which the fresco is painted. He also paid close attention to the dimensions of the objects and spaces that he painted so much you could actually determine the dimensions of the room you were looking at in the fresco. Masaccio included much of what we see from ancient Roman architecture such as the indented squares that decorated the ceiling which are known as collers, attached columns, a shallow, flattend out columns known as pilasters, a barrel vault, scrolls shapes at the top of the columns known as iconic and vertical, indented lined or grooves that decorated the pilasters and known as fluting. The life-size figures were painted with a new kind of sculptural modeling which made them seem to occupy real space as sculptures would. The architectural setting is contructed with a one-point perspective. This creates a convincing
sense of depth and places the view in a fairly physical relationship to what is being portrayed. At the time this was painted, the viewers could well have believed the Holy Trinity was actually right there in the church. Masaccio was poisoned by an envious rival painter when he was 27 years old a year after he finished this beautiful masterpiece. His work was all about the holy and profane; illuminating and suppressing. Spiritualtiy and man's awareness of his own mortality was essential in all of his work. He was inspired by biblical stores and was famous for his technique of using veiled transparencies of color to convey the different depts of spiritual illumination of the subject. Masaccio is considered the most influential early Renaissance painter and one the most revolutionary artists of his time in being able to creat a believable three-deminsional reality. His technique and style served as a guidebook to all who came after him. He died unappreciated and almost penniless without ever knowing the huge impact his work would have on the history of art. To have been able to convey such a dynamic showmanship of reason, compassion, mysticism and grace using paint on plaster is surely the greatest of Masacdcio's achievements.