Christ and the apostles stand like Roman senators in real light and real air, while Peter, in three episodes across one landscape, finds a coin in a fish's mouth to pay the tax collector.
Why it matters
The first great demonstration of the new science of perspective joined to figures modeled by a single consistent light source.
What to notice
Every head sits at the same level as ours — Brunelleschi's perspective puts us in the crowd; the haloes even tilt in space.
Context
Painted in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, where generations of artists — including young Michelangelo — came to learn.
About the artist
Masaccio (1401–1428). Dead at 27, Masaccio had already done it: fused Giotto's gravity with Brunelleschi's new perspective, and made painted space you could walk into.
Early Masters (c. 1300–1500): Before the Renaissance there was the icon: flat, golden, eternal. Then Giotto gave figures weight and grief, Masaccio gave them space, and painting began its long walk off the gold ground and into the world.
Walk the Grand Gallery → See this painting hung in its wing, with music and guided tours, in the full virtual museum.