Masaccio’s early Renaissance Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors(ca. 1425-27/28) in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence, demonstrates this renewed interest in human, rather than only divine, religious space.
Masaccio’s early Renaissance Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors(ca. 1425-27/28) in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence, demonstrates this renewed interest in human, rather than only divine, religious space. Through the scientific application of one-point, linear perspective, the fresco is considered to have depicted three-dimensional space on a flat surface for the first time since antiquity. By giving the illusion of depth in the representation of the vault’s coffers, and by portraying the figure of Mary gesturing to the viewer, the Trinity creates a conduit between the space of the viewer and the realm of the divine.