The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias

Masaccio was around 24 when he laid this scene onto the wall of the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, about 1425, and he had only three more years to live. The subject comes from the Acts of the Apostles. Peter hands coins to the poor while a man named Ananias lies dead at his feet, struck down for lying about money he had promised to the early church. What drew painters to this chapel for the next century is the light. Masaccio lit his figures as if the sun came from the chapel's own window, so their shadows fall the same way the room's do. He also faded the far mountains to a pale haze to push them back in space. Michelangelo came here as a young man to copy these very figures.