San Giovenale Triptych

This altarpiece carries a date along its base, April 23rd, 1422, and it is the earliest work we have by the painter known as Masaccio, who was then about 21 and came from a village just up the valley. Two things about it look forward. The dedication is spelled out in plain Roman capitals, at a time when almost everyone still wrote such inscriptions in Gothic script. And the painted architecture around the Virgin's throne is set into a single receding space, one of the first attempts anywhere to build a picture with the new geometric perspective. The saints on the wings are named in the inscription below, among them San Giovenale, who gave the little church its name.