The Holy Trinity by Masaccio

The Holy Trinity by Masaccio

A chapel that is not there

The wall of Santa Maria Novella appears to open into a barrel-vaulted chapel, coffered and columned, and it does not exist: Masaccio painted it using Brunelleschi's new one-point perspective so exactly that the vault can be reconstructed in three dimensions. Inside the chapel God the Father stands behind the cross and holds it; the Dove flies between his face and the Son's; Mary and John stand at the foot, and Mary looks out at us and gestures toward her son. Outside, kneeling, are the donors, painted as large as the saints — another first.

Below the whole thing, on a painted tomb, a skeleton lies with the inscription: I was once what you are, and what I am you will be.

Florence, 1427

Masaccio painted it around 1427 and died the next year, at twenty-seven. Vasari covered it with an altar in 1570; it was uncovered in 1861 and the upper and lower parts were reunited in 1952.

About this print

Made from a photograph of the upper part of the fresco — the chapel and the Trinity — 5,753 pixels tall. The painted pilasters at the edges are trimmed slightly by the nearest canvas format.

Sources: Santa Maria Novella, Florence · Wikidata Q1130734 · Wikimedia Commons