Expulsion of Adam - Baptism of the Neophytes
Place where the object is located
Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.
Story of the object
The body in the 15th and 16th centuries became an object of investigation and knowledge. The new representation of the human body was characterised by three driving forces: anatomical research; the study of proportions; and knowledge of thought. Anatomical research moved both in the field of philological work on classical sources, and in the innovative field of autopsy research on the corpse and reached its peak with Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (1543), accompanied by magnificent illustrations. The human body is considered a cosmos organised according to perfect laws that it is up to the man of culture to investigate and discover. The human body, like an architectural building, is composed of parts, each of which has a specific task and is organically united in a harmonious order.
Among the first artists of the 15th century to testify to the attention paid to the study of the human body and its representation is Masaccio. In the Church of the Carmine in Florence between 1424 and 1428, the young Masaccio painted the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. The scenes depicted narrate the stories of Saint Peter and some events taken from Genesis (original sin, expulsion from earthly Paradise, baptism of the Neophytes). These works show the extent of the revolution carried out by Masaccio and, more generally, by Renaissance art. In the Expulsion from Paradise, Adam and Eve have lost the lightness and proportions, the slender forms they displayed in Masolino's Original Sin. Masaccio depicts the two progenitors after their sin in the Old Testament with their bodies weighed down, their faces deformed by despair at the condemnation they received from God. The feet rest firmly on the ground while a violent light invests the figures modelling the perfect anatomy (Adam's contracted belly) casting shadows on the ground.
The young painter, considered a milestone on the path from Giotto to Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, portrays humanity in its real condition: man abandoning Paradise and entering history, experiencing the tragic weight of matter. The figures are no longer idealised but shaped with realism. They appear bent by the weight of guilt, their busts slightly inclined. Adam's shoulders are arched, his stomach contracted in an effort to hide his shame. The artist highlights the tension in the muscles of his arms as he covers his face with his hands. Suffering and mortification can be seen in the stiffening of the facial features, in the retraction of Eve's arm, in the effort to cover her nakedness, in the forms exposed to sin and divine condemnation. In the Baptism of the Neophytes, the centre of the scene is a man with an athletic body, kneeling, his head bowed. Behind him another, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, seems to be trembling with cold.
The two bodies, whose muscular masses Masaccio highlights, express a concrete, tangible physicality, made manifest by the shadows reflected on the ground. The figures are represented with a powerful plasticity that underlines their authority. The man represented by Masaccio is the modern man who knows how to master space, the protagonist of his own destiny. The body is the image of the order of the universe, its stable centre. The novelty of Masaccio's painting is the elaboration of a drawing based on the scientific study of the figure, the careful anatomical analysis taken from life and with a strongly expressive realism. The Neophytes are represented as peasants of the time with a structured and well-defined physique that suggests an articulate scientific study of human anatomy. Eve's facial expressions are marked by wrinkles and she is caught in an ungainly and realistic cry that reflects the weight of sin. Adam presents a very credible anatomical construction.
The revolutionary element is not so much the nudity of the characters as the fluidity and dynamism of their free and loose movements. Even the figure of the young man kneeling to receive baptism reveals the careful eye of an anatomist. The plasticity of the body reveals a rational observation of forms, and the hair wet with water has a strong visual impact. The artist skilfully highlights the tension in the arms and pectorals, the belly appears contracted in the act of receiving the baptism, the head bowed, the bust slightly bent in an act of obedience. Masaccio succeeds in representing not only feelings but also a subtle physical suffering that can be sensed in the image of the young man on the viewer's right who, with arms folded, is trying to find the right thermoregulation for his body exposed to an uncomfortable external temperature.
Among the first artists of the 15th century to testify to the attention paid to the study of the human body and its representation is Masaccio. In the Church of the Carmine in Florence between 1424 and 1428, the young Masaccio painted the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. The scenes depicted narrate the stories of Saint Peter and some events taken from Genesis (original sin, expulsion from earthly Paradise, baptism of the Neophytes). These works show the extent of the revolution carried out by Masaccio and, more generally, by Renaissance art. In the Expulsion from Paradise, Adam and Eve have lost the lightness and proportions, the slender forms they displayed in Masolino's Original Sin. Masaccio depicts the two progenitors after their sin in the Old Testament with their bodies weighed down, their faces deformed by despair at the condemnation they received from God. The feet rest firmly on the ground while a violent light invests the figures modelling the perfect anatomy (Adam's contracted belly) casting shadows on the ground.
The young painter, considered a milestone on the path from Giotto to Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, portrays humanity in its real condition: man abandoning Paradise and entering history, experiencing the tragic weight of matter. The figures are no longer idealised but shaped with realism. They appear bent by the weight of guilt, their busts slightly inclined. Adam's shoulders are arched, his stomach contracted in an effort to hide his shame. The artist highlights the tension in the muscles of his arms as he covers his face with his hands. Suffering and mortification can be seen in the stiffening of the facial features, in the retraction of Eve's arm, in the effort to cover her nakedness, in the forms exposed to sin and divine condemnation. In the Baptism of the Neophytes, the centre of the scene is a man with an athletic body, kneeling, his head bowed. Behind him another, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, seems to be trembling with cold.
The two bodies, whose muscular masses Masaccio highlights, express a concrete, tangible physicality, made manifest by the shadows reflected on the ground. The figures are represented with a powerful plasticity that underlines their authority. The man represented by Masaccio is the modern man who knows how to master space, the protagonist of his own destiny. The body is the image of the order of the universe, its stable centre. The novelty of Masaccio's painting is the elaboration of a drawing based on the scientific study of the figure, the careful anatomical analysis taken from life and with a strongly expressive realism. The Neophytes are represented as peasants of the time with a structured and well-defined physique that suggests an articulate scientific study of human anatomy. Eve's facial expressions are marked by wrinkles and she is caught in an ungainly and realistic cry that reflects the weight of sin. Adam presents a very credible anatomical construction.
The revolutionary element is not so much the nudity of the characters as the fluidity and dynamism of their free and loose movements. Even the figure of the young man kneeling to receive baptism reveals the careful eye of an anatomist. The plasticity of the body reveals a rational observation of forms, and the hair wet with water has a strong visual impact. The artist skilfully highlights the tension in the arms and pectorals, the belly appears contracted in the act of receiving the baptism, the head bowed, the bust slightly bent in an act of obedience. Masaccio succeeds in representing not only feelings but also a subtle physical suffering that can be sensed in the image of the young man on the viewer's right who, with arms folded, is trying to find the right thermoregulation for his body exposed to an uncomfortable external temperature.
Unit of the Educational Material connected (4 - 1)
Label
Masaccio, Year 1425, Technique: fresco, 214x88 cm
