Masaccio's St. Andrew is a panel that was originally part of the upper right tier of a large altarpiece commissioned by a wealthy public official for a church in Pisa. The panel is 20 and 5/8 inches by 12 and 5/8 inches. It is painted in tempera on wood and is dated to 1426. The panel can be observed at California's Getty Museum where it is number 79.PB.61 in the museum's collection (St. Andrew, 2000).
Masaccio was born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone and received his nickname which translates as "Sloppy Tom" from the sixteenth century biographer, Giorgio Vasari (Masaccio, 2000). Vasari wrote that Masaccio was so devoted to his work that he gave almost no attention to worldly matters, including his own dress (Gardner, 1952). The Florentines frequently gave expression to their fun-loving disposition by applying appropriate nicknames to public figures, which became so popular that they take precedence over a person's real name. Gardner (1952) states that with Masaccio, we enter the world of the early Renaissance with its eager enthusiasm for inquiry.
Masaccio had a very brief career, dying in 1428 at the age of 27. At age 27, he abandoned his most important Florentine commission, the Brancacci Chapel, and went to Rome, where he mysteriously died shortly thereafter (Masaccio, 2000). In a short lifetime, however, he developed a new way of working with perspective that would be refined by later Italian artists of the High Renaissance (Gardner, 1952).
Masaccio identifies St. Andrew by the inclusion of a cross and a book. The cross refers to the saint's martyrdom by crucifixion whereas the book identifies the saint as continuing in the tradition of the church fathers. St. Andrew is centered in the panel which is composed of an architectural surround. St. Andrew gazes toward Christ on the cross, shown in the altarpiece's upper middle panels (St. Andrew, 2000).
Striking in this panel are Masaccio's use of modu...