MASACCIO

Real name: Tommaso di ser Giovanni di Simone Guidi Cassai. Italian painter, one of the most prominent artists of the early Renaissance. The name Masaccio means 'big Tommaso'; small Tommaso would then be Masolino, with whom Masaccio worked and who may have been his teacher.

Masaccio was born in Castel San Giovanni di Valdarno, between Arezzo and Florence. In 1422 he is admitted to the Florence painters guild. He begins working on his most important work in 1423: the frescoes on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel of the Santa Maria del Carmine (Florence). Masaccio is one of the first to use perspective to suggest depth in a flat surface. He has an eye for the use of light, a talent for expressing moods and he is a true master at forming groups.The majority of his work has been destroyed. Masaccio probably died in poverty in Rome, at the age of 27.