ancient technique, new approach
Masaccio probably had several hours (at most a day's work, in any case), to paint this head of Saint Peter in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. Note the fine crack running around his neck, the top of his tunic and the edge of his yellow mantle: this crack is the edge of the giornata, the area of wet plaster that apprentices would have prepared for the master painter to cover in one day. Is it not extraordinary that, presumably without major alterations, this beautiful, expressive face was painted rapidly, and under pressure?
