Masolino da Panicale

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Masolino da Panicale ( Tommaso di Cristofano) (b ?Panicale, ?c.1383; d ?c.1435/40). Italian painter, an enigmatic and intriguing figure. He presumably came from Panicale in Umbria, and he worked in various places in Italy (and also in Hungary), but he is regarded as a member of the Florentine School. According to Vasari he trained as a sculptor and goldsmith under Ghiberti, but his early life is obscure. For a short period his career was closely linked to that of Masaccio, but the exact nature of their association remains ill defined (the nickname Masolino, meaning ‘little Tom’, almost suggests that he and Masaccio—‘big’ or ‘hulking Tom’—were thought of as a kind of double act). The tradition that he was Masaccio's master is now dismissed, for he became a member of the painters' guild in Florence only in 1423 (a year after Masaccio) and although he was evidently almost two decades older, it was he who was influenced by Masaccio rather than the other way round. On stylistic grounds they are thought to have collaborated on the Madonna and Child with St Anne (c.1425, Uffizi, Florence), and Vasari records that they worked together on the decoration of the Brancacci Chapel of S. Maria del Carmine in Florence (c.1425–8). Masolino's style was softer and more graceful than Masaccio's and there is a fair measure of agreement about the division of hands in the chapel. The contrast in style is seen most clearly in the frescos of the Temptation of Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from Paradise; Masolino's nude figures in the Temptation have an almost doll-like daintiness, whereas Masaccio's in the Expulsion are massively powerful and convey a feeling of tragic intensity. After Masaccio's early death in 1428 Masolino's style became more decorative. At his best he was a painter of great distinction; his masterpiece is perhaps the fresco of the Baptism of Christ (c.1435) in the Baptistery at Castiglione d'Olona, near Como, a graceful and lyrical work that is a world away from Masaccio's sombre Baptism of the Neophytes in the Brancacci Chapel.

Masolino da Panicale ( Tommaso di Cristofano) (c.1383?–c.1440?). Italian painter, an enigmatic and intriguing figure. He presumably came from Panicale in Umbria, and he worked in various places in Italy (and also in Hungary), but he is regarded as a member of the Florentine School. According to Vasari he trained as a sculptor and goldsmith under Ghiberti, but his early life is obscure. For a short period his career was closely linked to that of Masaccio, but the exact nature of their association remains ill-defined (the nickname Masolino, meaning ‘Little Tom’, almost suggests that he and Masaccio—‘Big’ or ‘Hulking Tom’—were thought of as a kind of double act). The tradition that he was Masaccio's master is now dismissed, for he became a member of the painters' guild in Florence only in 1423 (a year after Masaccio) and although he was evidently almost two decades older, it was he who was influenced by Masaccio rather than the other way round. On stylistic grounds they are thought to have collaborated on the Madonna and Child with St Anne (c.1425, Uffizi, Florence), and Vasari records that they worked together on the decoration of the Brancacci Chapel of S. Maria del Carmine in Florence (c.1425–8). Masolino's style was softer and more graceful than Masaccio's and there is a fair measure of agreement about the division of hands in the chapel. The contrast in style is seen most clearly in the frescos of the Temptation of Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from Paradise; Masolino's nude figures in the Temptation have an almost doll-like daintiness, whereas Masaccio's in the Expulsion are massively powerful and convey a feeling of tragic intensity. After Masaccio's early death in 1428 Masolino's style became more decorative. At his best he was a painter of great distinction, his masterpiece perhaps being the fresco of the Baptism of Christ (c.1435) in the Baptistery at Castiglione d'Olona, near Como, a graceful and lyrical work that is a world away from Masaccio's sombre Baptism of the Neophytes in the Brancacci Chapel.

Masolino da Panicale , 1383–c.1447, Florentine painter of the early Renaissance, whose real name was Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini. His versatile painting incorporated his feeling for decorative color with strong modeling and spatial organization. He was admitted (1423) to the apothecaries' guild in Florence, in which painters were enrolled, and was soon commissioned to paint the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence. These were continued by his pupil Masaccio upon Masolino's departure (1427) for Hungary and were completed by Filippino Lippi, thus greatly complicating the question of authorship; currently scholars attribute to Masolino St. Peter Preaching, St. Peter Healing the Cripple, The Raising of Tabitha, and The Fall of Adam and Eve. Upon his return to Florence, Masolino found painters occupied with problems of perspective, light and shade, and classical architecture and decoration, ideas that he utilized while retaining much of the old Giottesque tradition. He went to Rome where he painted frescoes in the Church of San Clemente for the Cardinal Branda Castiglione. For the same patron he decorated the church of Castiglione di Olona in the province of Como, Italy. There he represented scenes from the life of the Virgin and of St. John the Baptist. Attributed to Masolino are The Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore and a Madonna and Christ in Glory (Naples); Madonna with Angels (Church of San Fortunato, Todi); two Annunciations (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.); and Saints (Philadelphia Museum).

Bibliography: See B. Berenson, The Italian Painters of the Renaissance (3 vol., 1930, repr. 1968).