are all also portrayed by the hand of the
same man in the house of Simon Corsi, a gentleman of Florence. He also
painted there Lorenzo Ridolfi, who was at that time the ambassador of
the Florentine Republic in Venice; and not only did he portray there the
aforesaid gentlemen from the life, but also the door of the convent and
the porter with the keys in his hand. This work, truly, shows great
perfection, for Masaccio was so successful in placing these people, five
or six to a file, on the level of that piazza, and in making them
diminish to the eye with proportion and judgment, that it is indeed a
marvel, and above all because we can recognize there the wisdom that he
showed in making those men, as if they were alive, not all of one size,
but with a certain discretion which distinguishes those who are short
and stout from those who are tall and slender; while they are all
standing with their feet firmly on one level, and so well foreshortened
along the files that they would not be otherwise in nature.

After this, returning to the work of the Chapel of the Brancacci, and
continuing the stories of S. Peter begun by Masolino, he finished a part
of them--namely, the story of the Chair, the healing of the sick, the
raising of the dead, and the restoring of the cripples with his shadow
as he was going to the Temple with S. John. But the most notable among
them all is that one wherein S. Peter, at Christ's command, is taking
the money from the belly of the fish, in order to pay the tribute, since
(besides the fact that we see there in an Apostle, the last of the
group, the portrait of Masaccio himself, made by his own hand with the
help of a mirror, so well that it appears absolutely alive) we can
recognize there the ardour of S. Peter in his questioning and the
attentiveness of the Apostles, who are standing in various attitudes
round Christ, awaiting his determination, with gestures so vivid that
they truly appear alive. Wonderful, above all, is the S. Peter who,
while he is labouring to draw the money from the belly of the fish, has
his head suffused with blood by reason of bending down; and he is even
more wonderful as he pays the tribute, for here we see his expression as
he counts it, and the eagerness of him who is receiving it and looking
at the money in his hand with the greatest pleasure. There, also, he
painted the resurrection of the King's son, wrought by S. Peter and S.
Paul; although by reason of the death of M