page_title: Brancacci Chapel
section_title: Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned
hierarchical_section_title: Brancacci Chapel / The paintings / Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned
caption_attribution_description: Cappella brancacci, San Pietro in carcere visitato da San Paolo
context_page_description: The Brancacci Chapel is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Felice Brancacci and begun in 1422. The paintings were executed over the years 1425 to 1427. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.
  The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423. Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel. Masolino's associate, 21-year-old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student.
context_section_description: Lower left wall, by Masaccio, completed by Filippino Lippi approximately fifty years later.
  Filippino composed the five bystanders on the left, the Carmelites' drapery and the central part of St Peter's arm in the "enthroned" representation. According to the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) by Jacobus de Voragine, after release from prison, St Peter resuscitates, with St Paul's assistance, Theophilus's son, who had died fourteen years before. So, people venerated St Peter and erected a new church to him, where he is enthroned so as to be revered and prayed by all. However, the true meaning of this fresco rests with the politics of the time: that is, in the conflict between Florence and the Duchy of Milan.
   There is a precise iconographic resemblance between Theophilus (seated on the left, in an elevated position within a niche) and Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Florence's bitter enemy. The latter was a feared tyrant, whose thirst for power pushed him to start a war with Florence, almost destroying its freedom. Memory of this episode returned in all its crude vividness, when Florence had to confront a dispute with Filippo Maria Visconti, Gian Galeazzo's son. The figure sitting on Theophilus' (i.e., Gian Galeazzo's) right would be the Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati, author of an invective against the Lombard lord. St Peter's presence, therefore, symbolizes the mediating role of the Church in the person of Pope Martin V, to sedate the conflict between Milan and Florence. At the extreme right, a group of four bystanders should personify Masaccio (looking away from the painting), Masolino (the shortest one), Leon Battista Alberti (in the foreground); and Filippo Brunelleschi (the last). The frequent use of portraiture makes the imaginary world of painting and the viewer's personal experience converge. For Masaccio's contemporaries it should have been easier to read this scene as a reflection of themselves and their own social realities. The fresco's figures populate a dilated space of their own world and have a natural demeanor: they stretch their necks to see better, they look over their neighbour's shoulder, gesticulate, observe and gossip the event with the next bystander.
caption: St Paul Visiting St Peter in Prison
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