Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

the cry issuing from Eve’s mouth voices her anguish. The angel does

not force them physically from Eden. Rather, they stumble on blindly,

the angel’s will and their own despair driving them. The composition

is starkly simple, its message incomparably eloquent.

HOLY TRINITYMasaccio’s Holy Trinity fresco (FIG. 21-20) in

Santa Maria Novella is another of the young artist’s masterworks

and the premier early-15th-century example of the application

of mathematics to the depiction of space. Masaccio painted the

composition on two levels of unequal height. Above, in a coffered

barrel-vaulted chapel reminiscent of a Roman triumphal arch

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21-19Masaccio,Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden,Brancacci

Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy, ca. 1424–1427. Fresco,

7  2  11 .

Adam and Eve, expelled from Eden, stumble on blindly, driven by the

angel’s will and their own despair. The hazy background specifies no

locale but suggests a space around and beyond the figures.

21-20Masaccio,Holy Trinity,Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy,

ca. 1424–1427. Fresco, 21 105 – 8  10  43 – 4 .

Masaccio’s Holy Trinity is the premier early-15th-century example of the

application of mathematics to pictorial organization in Brunelleschi’s

new science of perspective. The illusionism is breathtaking.

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with convincing structural accuracy, thereby suggesting substantial

body weight. Further, the hazy background specifies no locale but

suggests a space around and beyond the figures. Adam’s feet, clearly

in contact with the ground, mark the human presence on earth, and