Massaccio-Tomasaccio (big or heavy Tom) was a nickname given to him when
a boy. A devoted student of the works of Brunelleschi and Donatello. He
lived for the most part in Rome and Florence, and died in the last-named
city. Time has destroyed the greater number of his works. His frescos,
which still remain in the Brancacci chapel of the Carmelite church in
Florence, representing the history of St. Peter, are remarkable for
their freedom, and for the absence of the conventionalities of the early
mediæval painters. Some of his noble figures became models for the later
Florentines, and were imitated by Raffaelle himself. He excelled his
contemporaries in the nude form, and gave to his draperies a style
unknown before, adapting them naturally and gracefully to the human
shape.
[By Carlo Finelli.]