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The Brancacci Chapel was added to the south transept of the Carmelite church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, in about 1386. Provision for it had been made in the will of Pietro Brancacci, who died in 1367. Felice di Michele Brancacci commissioned the painting of the chapel in his will of 1422.
It is assumed that work on the frescoes began in 1424, at a time when Masaccio and Masolino were working together, and that it continued until 1427 or 1428, when Masaccio set off for Rome, leaving the fresco cycle unfinished. The cycle was completed by Filippino Lippi between 1481 and 1485.
Although only partly by Masaccio, the Brancacci Chapel frescoes stand as Masaccio's most influential work and the one upon which rests his historical position as the first painter of the renaissance. His share in the work was probably done during 1427 and consisted of the Expulsion on the left inner pilaster, the Tribute Money and part of the Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned on the left wall. He also painted three scenes dealing with the life of St Peter on the altar wall, the fourth is by Masolino. Already famous in the fifteenth century, artists and art students paid their homage to these frescoes by studying and copying them.
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| Summary of paintings by MASACCIO |
| Frescoes in the Cappella Brancacci |
| Pisa Altarpiece |
| Trinity in the Santa Maria Novella |
| Various panel paintings |
