The Disputation with Simon Magus and the Crucifixion of Peter

This fresco closes a job that had sat unfinished for half a century. Masaccio and Masolino began decorating the Brancacci Chapel around 1425, then Masaccio left for Rome and died there, barely 27, leaving whole walls bare. Around 1481 the young Filippino Lippi was brought in to finish the cycle, and he worked hard to match a style two generations old. On the right Saint Peter argues with the magician Simon Magus before the emperor. On the left he is crucified upside down, at his own request, unwilling to die in the exact manner of Christ. Among the onlookers Filippino tucked in real Florentine faces, including his friend Botticelli, who gazes straight out at us.