Masaccio

Masaccio, byname of Tommaso di Giovanni di Simone Cassai    (born Dec. 21, 1401, Castel San Giovanni [now San Giovanni Valdarno, near Florence, Italy]—died autumn 1428, Rome), important Florentine painter of the early Renaissance whose frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence (c. 1427) remained influential throughout the Renaissance. In the span of only six years, Masaccio radically transformed Florentine painting. His art eventually helped create many of the major conceptual and stylistic foundations of Western painting. Seldom has such a brief life been so important to the history of art.... (101 of 2,309 words)