Der heilige Hieronymus

In February 1426 the young Masaccio signed a contract in Pisa to paint a large altarpiece for a chapel in the Carmelite church, for 80 florins. He was in his mid-20s and had only two years left to live. What he delivered was pulled apart in the 18th century and scattered across Europe, and this is one of the surviving splinters: a narrow panel that once stood along the side, showing two of the great Church Fathers, Jerome in his cardinal's red and Augustine beside him. Even at this small size Masaccio gives the two men real bodily weight, standing in space and casting shadow, which is exactly what his generation in Florence was just then learning to do. Four of the altarpiece's panels are now in Berlin.