CHAPTER III.—MASACCIO AND THE NEW REALISM
On the general matter of the realists of the Early Renaissance not much has been added to Crowe and Cavalcaselle, but Mr. Berenson’s comment in Florentine Painters and Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance is of high critical value. Vasari is interesting, but never more inaccurate than when dealing with this group. As usual the latest collected information is in Venturi. Storia, Vol. VII, part I, and elsewhere.
[28]. Matteo Villani, Istorie, Florence, 1581, Lib. I, cap. iv, pp. 5–6.
[29]. Lorenzo Monaco. The standard work is by O. Sirén, Don Lorenzo Monaco, Strassburg, 1905.
[30]. Fra Angelico. Langton Douglas. Fra Angelico, London and New York, 1900.
Vasari’s Life is admirable and in essentials correct.
[31]. Masolino-Masaccio. The summary in C. & C. (Douglas) Vol. IV; (Hutton), Vol. II, reasonably brings the controversy up to date. The latest review is by Dr. Richard Offner, Art in America, Vol. VIII, pp. 68–76, A St. Jerome by Masolino. Dr. Offner, in Dedalo, Mar., 1923, publishes a fine St. Julian, by Masolino, which reveals in a new light that artist’s romantic temperamentalism. Mr. Berenson, l. c., publishes a predella piece for the same panel.
The large album of plates accompanying August H. Schmarsow’s Masaccio, der Begründer des Klassischen Stils &c. Kassel, 1900, is indispensable to the serious student. It is available in the great libraries. Cuts of all the works involved in the controversy are more readily attainable in P. Toesca’s Masolino da Panicale, Bergamo, 1908, and in Venturi, Storia, Vol. VII, pt. I.
[32]. The rider with his back turned at the left of the fresco of the Calvary has a rondel protecting the nape of his neck. It is a short-lived and unsuccessful invention which was not used before 1435–40. This information, which I owe to Dr. Bashford Dean of the Metropolitan Museum, dates the Calvary well after Masaccio’s death, and, inferentially, all the other frescoes in the same chapel.
[33]. Cassoni and other Furniture Panels. The standard work is by Paul Schubring, Cassoni &c. Leipzig, 1915.