Cappella Brancacci

Brancacci Chapel

Masaccio's Fresco Masterpiece

Description

In 1423, Felice Brancacci, a wealthy Florentine businessman, commissioned two emerging painters, Masolino and Masaccio, to decorate the Brancacci family chapel inside the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. Masolino and Masaccio worked together on painting the walls of the chapel with frescoes over a number of years, but because of Masaccio's death in 1428 and of Felice Brancacci's exile in 1436, the chapel remained unfinished until 1480 when Filippo Lippi completed the frescoes. The result of Masaccio's, Masolino's, and Lippi's work (but especially that of Masaccio) is one of the Renaissance's most celebrated art treasures: the Life of St. Peter's fresco cycle.