‘Tribute Money’ by Masaccio, 1425 (Religious Painting - Florence)

when was it painted?

1427

where is it held?

In the Brancacci chapel in the Florentine church of Santa Maria del Carmine

who was it commissioned by?

a silk merchant family called the Brancaccis

Masaccio and Masolino worked on the…

top area of fresco buons

Filipo Lippi worked on the…

lower area of the walls

Focus on the materials and fabrics being worn to indicate their…

silk trading

focus on their patron saint…

St Peter

The shadows of the figures in the painting are being cast by…

the one window in the chapel, this immediately looks as though we sharing space with the images

He forces us to look up and into the…

painted architecture, our position is being considered e.g. adding the inside of the arch to look as though we are beneath it

There is a tompé l'oeil effect used, including…

painted corinthian pilasters to mimic architecture of the church

Breaking down division that are built between the…

real world from the imagined/painted world

Derives from a story from the…

gospel of St Matthew

A frame with three…

moments in time painted

The tax collector demanding…

tribute in the centre of the painting

The tax collector is dressed in…

contemporary dress, has no halo and in blunt profile (back turned to us)

Christ looks…

self-contained and serene rather than annoyed, he is willing to give him the money

The disciples with Christ all look…

defiant, angry and resistant next to him

Peter picks up the same gesture…

as Christ, the horizontal of their hands draws us to scene two, Peter getting the gold coin from the fish’s mouth

At the sea Peter is drastically…

foreshortened, kneeling by the water e.g. his halo is less circular

Peter has taken off his robe so it doesn’t get wet, a new form of…

naturalism and a level to which no one has seen yet in art

The trees look as though they have…

lost their leaves and the weather is stormy, he sets a believable scene, this makes us understand the story better, makes it more believable

The storm draws us to the…

opposite side of the painting, to scene 3, an architectural block sections of the scene, Peter puts the gold coin in the hand of the tax collector

There was an introduction of what tax?

the Catasto tax in Florence to pay for recent wars against Milan, Florence’s biggest rivalling city state

This is saying to the people of Florence that…

Christ paid his taxes, therefore, they should pay theirs

Religious figures treated as…

classical entities, they are given a dignity that has not been seen since antiquity

Figures look like…

sculptures, they are weighty and solid, show the influence of Donatello’s recent trip to Rome

a new scientific observation of…

light, e.g. the physical window of the chapel casts the shadows, enhances the naturalism of the scene

A new observation of the natural world e.g….

a sandy terrain, a lake, mountains etc.

We are given ‘modern’…

architecture

We are given a believable…

setting, season and time of day

Science has been employed for…

spiritual gain