to be commended as if
he had been its inventor, for in truth the works made before his day can
be said to be painted, while his are living, real, and natural, in
comparison with those made by the others.

[Illustration: MASACCIO: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI]

(_Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 58A._ _Panel_)

This man was born at Castello San Giovanni in Valdarno, and they say
that one may still see there some figures made by him in his earliest
childhood. He was a very absent-minded and careless person, as one who,
having fixed his whole mind and will on the matters of art, cared little
about himself, and still less about others. And since he would never
give any manner of thought to the cares and concerns of the world, or
even to clothing himself, and was not wont to recover his money from his
debtors, save only when he was in the greatest straits, his name was
therefore changed from Tommaso to Masaccio,[13] not, indeed, because he
was vicious, for he was goodness itself, but by reason of his so
great carelessness; and with all this, nevertheless, he was so
amiable in doing the service and pleasure of others, that nothing more
could be desired.

[Footnote 13: Careless Tom, or Hulking Tom (not necessarily in
disapproval).]

He began painting at the time when Masolino da Panicale was working on
the Chapel of the Brancacci in the Carmine, in Florence, ever following,
in so far as he was able, in the steps of Filippo and Donato, although
their branch of art was different, and seeking continually in his work
to make his figures very lifelike and with a beautiful liveliness in the
likeness of nature. And his lineaments and his painting were so modern
and so different from those of the others, that his works can safely
stand in comparison with any drawing and colouring of our own day. He
was very zealous at his labours, and a marvellous master of the
difficulties of perspective, as it is seen in a story painted by him
with small figures, which is to-day in the house of Ridolfo del
Ghirlandajo. In this story, besides a Christ who is delivering the man
possessed by a devil, there are very beautiful buildings in perspective,
drawn in a manner that they show at one and the same time both the
inside and the outside, by reason of his having chosen the point of
view, not of the front, but over the corners, as being more difficult.
He sought more than any other master to make his figures nude and
foreshortened, which was little