Inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence there is another of Masaccio's great masterpieces that truly contributed substantially to creating the new language of painting of the early Renaissance but essentially to laying the foundations in a pictorial sense for what would become the true Renaissance not only of the first hour but you will see from the characteristics that I will present to you we will then be able to recognize in all the painting of the 4th and 16th centuries even what we are talking about we are talking about the fresco that Masaccio created in 1427 and which has as its subject the Trinity then we find ourselves said inside the Florentine Basilica of Santa Maria Novella a basilica that had a Romanesque origin you recognize you could also recognize if the facade was made by Leon Battista Alberti so again the important names that we are studying inside during the mid-15th century return but the first construction was Romanesque and we will be able to recognize in this sense it is an initial Romanesque part then even Gothic we can recognize in this sense the use of two-tone marble It is typical of the Tuscan Romanesque and then Gothic style, and I'll show you another view of the Albertian façade. Meanwhile, you'll see that next to the church there is a cloister. You can see it here on the right. Now, perhaps you'll be interested to discover that the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, or the 3rd, opens onto the square in front of the train station. By taking the Santa Maria Novella train, you arrive in Florence, get off at the Santa Maria Novella station, cross the square, and you'll find yourself in front of this basilica. Perhaps you'll be curious to know that inside Santa Maria Novella, as it were, it comes to life, and the story told by Boccaccio in the Decameron begins. In fact, it tells us that these characters meet inside Santa Maria Novella and thus decide to, so to speak, escape the plague of 1348. Now, here's the work we need to analyze. I told you it's a fresco, so painted, and it's on the wall of the basilica. In reality, it has undergone significant alterations throughout its history, having been moved, mounted on canvas, and hung on the wall. It is at this moment however it has actually been repositioned relocated where it was originally we are talking about a fresco therefore painted directly on the wall by Masaccio and received in 1427 let's remember that Masaccio will die in 1428 and this fresco measures 667 cm by 317 so it is really six and a half meters and more by over three meters a fresco of considerable size then I will also show it to you inserted in its original location inside the basilica itself now this fresco is presented to us as often happens by Giorgio Vasari himself who tells us that the Santa Maria Novella still painted fresco under the partition of the church a Trinity which is placed above the altar of Saint Ignatius at that time there was this church it was a Dominican basilica precisely with an attached cloister for the Dominican friars and there was a cemetery then Verbena I speak there was a large partition a sort of cone stavi that divided the part dedicated to the citizens and the part of the church dedicated to the Augustinian monks and in front of the Trinity there was instead an altar which was later dismantled so you see let's evoke all these changes that have occurred in history Vasari tells us the Trinity is placed above the other of Saint Ignatius and our lady Mary and Saint John the Evangelist who place it in the middle contemplating Christ crucified from the bands that is the sides are kneeling two figures which as far as we can judge are portraits of those who had it painted evidently they are the data of the clients then we will focus on each of these characters but they are barely visible and sandy covered by the training put in gold evidently they had been so to speak embellished given and the importance of the gold obviously all this today has not reached us but what is beautiful besides the figures is a half barrel vault drawn in perspective is divided into squares full of rosettes will be the lagooners who diminish and foreshorten so well they are shortened so well that it seems that that wall is pierced let's keep in mind this expression of Vasari that It seems that he has pierced that wall because we will really think about it and does this description of his really make sense so what are we talking about here you see a complete scene that has as its subject the trinity athlete is the mystery of the Christian faith par excellence we are talking about a divinity that is one and triune god father son and holy spirit three different figures that however are as if to say the same figure intersect to become the same figure it is a mystery the Christian mystery par excellence and so how could it be represented then you will be interested to know that this work flowed to an amazing modernity for many reasons first of which is precisely that Masaccio paints for the first time perhaps in history a god father in human figure is an old man with a beard and who has a real physical body powerful in flesh and blood like us until shortly before or even long before the tradition wanted that the figure of god father should not even be represented a small part was enough often his hand was enough because from his hand depended the power to intervene in our lives so really I will show you now a series of images that go from the early Christian period to Romanesque I have not made such a rigorous subdivision but you see that we often have the intervention of this hand of God that comes from above to direct, to bless, to direct the deeds of men, therefore truly the gestures more than the deeds, the gestures of men, therefore truly this was the tradition here for example just to show we are inside the area of ​​the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe at Le Navi I will see an enlargement here that above the jeweled cross of the Transfiguration of Christ that hand appears once again precisely as a testimony of the blessing as in this case you will remember precisely the renunciation of goods 18 here you see that once it was enough this is the same hand of God it will even be recreated as the hand of justice when Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to be crowned precisely to fish out the hand of the power of God which in this case in the case of the liberator Napoleon wanted it to be precisely on him to confer this power on him and we were saying beyond this of the previous tradition but I do instead choose to represent a God the Father who is precisely physically a man as much as us among other things many times in the tradition even slightly previous if not contemporary when it was necessary to represent the trinity 30 it was also defined as the throne of grace because precisely these three figures were one and triune grace for humanity could depend but what happened that there were two different possibilities if they were represented with a Christ man as in this case you see that two possible things will happen you could have God the Father Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove but the men who intervened around were represented in a hierarchical form that is smaller not only God the Father himself is larger than the dove itself and the figure of Christ so this was a possibility but normally the further possibility is that of representing the Trinity inside an almond of light you see this geometric shape that frames the figures and that makes them abstract it tears them from our world and projects them into a space that is the otherworldly one certainly not our world and then you understand that Masaccio's idea is very different and very modern and look for example at his God the Father, you will notice that not only is he an old man with a beard, one of the recognizable characteristics of a real father, but look at his foot, which we see on the right and foreshortened in perspective, that is, he is telling you that he occupies a physical space as much as we do. Look at the two hands that Masaccio painted, they are holding the cross of his son as if he were truly a father who took on the sacrifice of his son, but in a space that is realistic, measurable, rational, truly extraordinary. This choice certainly will not surprise you. Then remember that inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, well, there were some very important examples if it was a question of reasoning in terms of the humanity of the characters, because we said this is Christ, my father, even before he was a man, obviously he refers to humanism. How many times have we talked about the centrality of man in the early Renaissance? So, look at it again, see here, meanwhile, he has inserted it into the central nave of Santa Maria Novella and you see that the central nave is dominated by the wonderful wooden crucifix by Giotto, which was not from the first. Renaissance because we are talking about a century before but we know that this anticipation of Christ as a man suffering on the cross was certainly a very modern vision by Giotto but then it won't even surprise you to remember that inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is also built the famous crucifix painted and sorry carved in wood by Brunelleschi in the famous diatribe told by Vasari at the point between the competition so to speak between Donatello and Brunelleschi regarding the wooden crucifix the famous peasant by Donatello and Christ the Brunelleschi Christ in response you see that back then the references were many and important but I told you that I would like to propose a further significant reflection because when you enter now you enter from the main facade okay but there is the possibility of also entering the basilica from the side passing through what was the funerary cloister that you had indicated to me before what does it mean it means that there was this city cemetery where the personalities of Florence were buried it is of the time and then it happened that many faithful and lay people went to visit the their deceased is that they were buried in this cemetery and then entered the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella and the first thing they would have found in front of them would have been Masaccio's fresco. Now I want to introduce you to the subject, or rather I have already introduced it to you, but I want to introduce you to the actual characters that are immortalized by Masaccio. You will notice that underneath there is a sarcophagus, but we will talk about that later. Let's start with the characters that for now are wines and I would like to show you precisely those that he described to us based at the beginning. You see that there are the sacred characters that are, as it were, kept inside, that are allocated, they are positioned within the space of the architecture below that round arch that opens up in front of us. Then you see that one step below are the two that Vasari himself defines anonymously, so already there we do not have the possibility of reconstructing their name, even if various hypotheses have been made, but let's leave aside the two patrons. On the left you see a man with a red dress, on the right a woman with a blue cloak and Their clasped hands are kneeling, they are in prayer. They are seen in profile and look slightly forward and upward as if they were truly meditating, praying, contemplating. Above, we find the truly important figures of the Trinity. On the left, we encounter a very hard face, let me say, sharp, with a very rigid expression. Mary's face is the figure of Mary with her red dress, the blue cloak. You are looking at this hand with this very evident gesture, she is pointing to the dead body of her son on the cross, almost as if to say, "Here is what you have done." I must say that it generates a sense of guilt. Emery's expression, we know that Mary has always had the role of the one who intercedes between humanity and the divine, and so she is inserted into that space, as he pointed out a moment ago, under the round arch. However, look at how, with this gaze of a mother who has suffered, she presents us with her hand, guiding us towards the body of her son, she presents it to us, but with a truly important hardness. Look at the halo in perspective, as we have always seen in Masaccio's works. on the other side we have the figure of St. John these characters are always present in the crucifixion but also in the Trinity evidently in the choice masa cesca we see St. John represented in profile also with the halo foreshortened in perspective the clasped hands in this case are more clasped in prayer they could remind you of the hands of the Madonna that we have analyzed in the cymatium of with the crucifixion of politics the politician of the carmine and dp from custodian Capodimonte in Naples less harsh also in this case St. John and tones down, as it were, the emotion in this case and looks towards the center towards the figure of Christ crucified then we have above the figure of God the Father we were saying and then look between the figure of God the Father video father who has the red dress the blue cloak and you see that the Holy Spirit appears in the form of this white dove that you see at first glance it was difficult to recognize it it almost seemed like a collar of a white dress of the white scarf of Handel of God the Father in reality it is precisely the dove you can see it very well and beyond Below there is still the figure of Christ on the cross. Look at the beautiful anatomy described with very quick but very expressive brushstrokes. Look at the suffering face of Christ who is still bleeding from the crown of thorns which is still evidently a Christ who is still alive and suffering. This is significant, this is really interesting, but then you understand that we are in front of an amazingly modern work, as we were saying, and even more so because it is modern also because you will notice that Masaccio painted it in perspective. I have marked the horizon line for you because when we go to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella and we position ourselves in front of Masaccio's fresco and we assume exactly the position that he never wants us to assume, that is, we position ourselves at a certain distance but exactly centrally and our point of view coincides exactly with the point of view that he certainly cm more cm less depends on our height but it coincides with the point of view that he considered to start the whole scene and then you will notice that not only has he placed the characters in a realistic space, it is a space so realistic as to be rational and measurable because we were saying. precisely that if there is perspective it is a space that represents our physical and earthly space this is truly very modern also because let's remember we are talking about the mystery of the Christian Trinity we are not talking about a scene with the miracle of St. Peter the tribute and the coin we are talking about something very different and then think that art historians have tried to reconstruct the space is truly measurable staged by Masaccio and then you see that all the various levels are really recreated do you remember when Masaccio was reading you a moment ago and he said it seemed as if he had opened a hole in the wall almost to simulate the presence of a real chapel and then look at the scene it is painted with a Brunelleschi-style perspective so rigorous that we could really imagine being in front of this real chapel that occupies this space that you see and then all the various characters are arranged in succession in the depth we have in the foreground on the same level below the skeleton and then the patrons kneeling one step above and a little further back the figure of Mary and St. John a little The figure of Christ crucified is slightly higher up and then again the dove of the Holy Spirit and behind it is God the Father higher up. It is truly a measurable and rational space, totally fifteenth-century and very modern. This choice will also notice that not only is the space measurable and architecturally painted with a perspective in the amazing competition. Let us remember that Poleschi had carried out his experiments on perspective around 1420. Here we are mini 1427 and it is perhaps the first time beyond the experiments that Masaccio had already done, such as the Brancacci Chapel for example. But surely such a rigorous perspective in painting is the first time it appears. But not only look at the architecture that Masaccio paints, it is profoundly classical. You will notice that there are indeed fluted pilasters of the fluted regional palaces with Corinthian capitals. Look at the double rotation of acanthus leaves. The lateral spiral evolution succeeded in the central one. Look at these roundels that intersect the tripartite architrave and the moldings of the arch with this shell inside. carved bas-relief look again at the Ionic capital of the smooth column that supports the round arch look precisely at a round arch with its moldings and look at the lagooners the ceiling is a barrel vault with lacunars that Vasari also spoke about precisely that precisely with this subdivision in which the panels really leads us towards the bottom but then this type of architecture I have already dared to often use the term Brunelleschian really must remind you of the architecture that in the meantime he was building he had built he was designing Filippo Brunelleschi the friend of Masaccio Filippo Brunelleschi here we are looking at a glance of the Pazzi Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence in which we see the same elements the fluted pilasters that Corinthian capital the tripartite architrave the continuous frieze the molded round arch the tondos in some cases even more evident for example here we are in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo also in Florence in this case already built by Brunelleschi you see once again the same elements included The roundels with the shells have placed several different images, if you look at them, they really seem like superimposable architectures, so much so that some art historians have even proposed the hypothesis that Brunelleschi himself designed, if not painted, the architecture of Masaccio's Trinity. It's a very fascinating hypothesis but it's not proven, so for now we'll leave it there in suspense. What's certain is that the influence is evident. I've placed an overlay of Brunelleschi's apse from the Pazzi Chapel on the right, and look at the architecture of Masaccio's Trinity on the left. Really, even in the proportions, no, the one between the glass, the column, the parade with the light fluting and that courageous capital, really the exact same elements. It could also remind you of the structure created by Brunelleschi for the Spedale degli Innocenti, at least in the part. You see, I chose the lateral part where you could see the parade that embraces the structure of the arches, but you see that there is one with the analysis, and in this case it's a capital. It was Corinthian, but in fact we have the moda natus est moderate arches with those roundels. It is truly an incredible replica of Brunelleschi's perspective and architecture now and you will notice in this sense really look also at the round arch starting the second arch that was evoked to us at the bottom that is evoked to us by Vasari and obviously at the center of everything the figure of Christ truly at the center of this circle that is evoked geometrically and then we see that the composition of the work itself is extraordinary because if we talk about the trinity we are talking about the mystery of the Christian church par excellence of the Christian faith excellence but then if we talk about the trinity we are talking about the nodes of the mystery of the one and triune and then look how Masaccio even in purely geometric and pictorial terms has solved the problem of how to represent this mystery he does it also thanks to geometry first of all by using the triangle several times we will say we have already talked about it we will talk about it many times the triangle is perhaps the mystical form par excellence spiritual par excellence a base very well attached to the ground to the matter and then it dematerializes until it reaches the spirit up there it will often also be used as a basic element for funerary monuments for example but in this case the triangle is perfect for vowel to pure precisely the trinity and look at the triangle comes also evoked by the alternation - let me say almost to those who love - a sort of crossed alternation of the figures that he has staged within the same triangle. You see that we have the same alternating red and blue colors that come to crown within the composition with the white of the central figure of Christ on the cross, the same almost sculptural body, almost white marble, white like the white of the columns of the pilasters or of the parades there next to it. Then perhaps you will be interested to discover that from an iconographic point of view the Trinity was represented with 3 colors: white, red and blue. They are certainly important colors also from the symbolic point of view. We have spoken about it several times, but then you see that every element of the composition organized by Masaccio responds to this coloristic logic. Look at the white architecture with the red moldings. Look at that coffered ceiling that opens behind the figure of God the Father with the white architecture in perspective for a back drop that however makes us dialogue in space, it makes us flow from the foreground towards the background following the alternation of these coffers with these red or black lacunars. blue you see that really nothing is left to chance but then your eye will also have been struck by the fact that underneath the living characters well I was telling you there is a sarcophagus or rather a real tomb that is and you see that there is the structure with two pearly Corinthian columns again a classical architecture that knows it occupies a space look at the shadow that is projected on the bottom of the wall and then we have in perspective this tomb on which lies a skeleton and you will notice that there is an inscription on this impressive skeleton that Masaccio frescoed for us inscription that says I was already what you are and that who I am you will also be I was already what you are and that what I am you will still be evidently it is a memento mori Masaccio is telling us he is inviting us to reflect on the transience of life on our mortality on the very short earthly passage the skeleton is telling us I was like you I was alive but you will become like me so this however shocking macabre it may seem in reality is the theological basis the philosophical spiritual basis from which the reflections The important moments of life must begin, that is, our earthly passage is so brief and so fleeting that it needs to be given a meaning. But then you will also notice that Masaccio painted this inscription, this memento mori, in Italian, not Latin. Let's remember that the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is a basilica, we were talking about, of Augustinian Dominican monks. So why then write in Italian and not in Latin? This is very interesting. Do you remember? I was telling you that outside the basilica there was this funerary cloister. So, those who went to visit their loved ones would then enter the basilica for a prayer and immediately find themselves in front of the fresco of the Trinity. Then it was inevitable to turn a thought to their own mortality, not only to their loved ones who have passed away, but also to their own mortality. The basilica itself therefore had, as it were, a double audience: certainly the Dominican friars, but also the citizens of Florence who were truly welcome within the structure. So it really is even more interesting because you see how Masaccio manages to propose a reflection that is very current, very important, urgent, very modern, once again. But then I have to ask you a question first, no, I have to tell you with a reminder. I was telling you that in the sky that Vasari himself told us about, the church was originally divided into the part, so to speak, towards the lay public and the Dominicans, by a partition wall, not an iconostasis. Beyond the partition wall there was the famous, there is still the famous Strozzi chapel, now the partition wall is no longer there. Look at it, on the left you can see where the Trinity is placed, the affection of the Trinity, now it is interesting because beyond this in the middle there is the Strozzi chapel, the sail, the monster, and Masaccio almost seems to replicate for the lay public who could not go beyond that partition wall the structure of the Strozzi chapel, because you see that above the Strozzi chapel there was this, there is this altarpiece that represents the majesty of God on the throne, therefore the figure of God the Father, and then below you see that instead there was a sort of funerary chapel space and with the representation he will have his own tomb with the representation of the lament of the dead Christ or his deposition, it really seems that Masaccio, we wanted to reconstruct the same scene beyond the partition wall. Listen to what the art historian Gombrich said when describing this wonderful fresco. We can imagine the amazement of the Florentines when the truth was removed because when the frescoes were completed there was a sort of inauguration. At the moment of unveiling to the public, this painting appeared that seemed to have dug a hole in the wall to show beyond it a new sepulchral chapel built according to the Brunelleschi style model. If the Florentines, you know, don't expect a work that evokes the international Gothic and that of Masolino, then in fashion in Florence as in the rest of Europe, it was the language of the whole of Europe. Masolino's must have been disappointed not thanks to delicate but massive and heavy figures, not free flowing curves but angular and solid forms. Truly a painting as modern as ever that set thoughts and rationality in motion. So I really leave you with a further reflection because think about it, what sense does it make to place the memento mori at the basis of the mystery of the Trinity perhaps? Masaccio is telling us that since we all have to deal with our mortality, as the Greeks spoke, no, the right measure of all this is our mortality, our brief earthly past, then perhaps with this starting point there is only one way to save ourselves. Masaccio is telling us and it is the one proposed by the mystery of the Christian faith of the Trinity, and then you see that even more meaning below mortality, just above, on a step outside the sacred space, the two kneeling patrons and then the sacred figures, there remains a question to ask ourselves, and that is, why Masaccio wanted to set the Christian mystery of the Trinity in a perspective space, perhaps the answer is totally Renaissance-humanistic, that is, he is saying that although it is a mystery of faith, perhaps men enlightened by faith, yes, but guided by rationality, from this real, concrete, measurable space, then perhaps guided by rationality, relying on the end, can truly reach salvation.