Fact and Fiction Regarding Masaccio’s Trinity Fresco

Abstract

The present chapter discusses some new findings on the question of how Masaccio constructed the perspective in his Trinity fresco. Some scholars have attempted to reduce the anomalies in the work using photogrammetry and computer analysis. On such grounds it has been argued that Masaccio used the normal technique known as costruzione legittima. However, the aberrations discovered in situ strongly suggest that Masaccio’s fresco is not a model of linear perspective. The concurrence of the vanishing lines in one point is only approximate, and the foreshortening of the intervals is flawed. Masaccio apparently used the lines of the plane joining the abaci of the capitals as a guide when he drew the lines of the coffered vault. But since the horizontal plane and the barrel vault are not coincident, he adopted an erroneous method of foreshortening—a fact that has been disregarded up to now. The thesis that Masaccio designed the fresco with the aid of a ground plan and elevations is dubious, and the search for its ideal viewing point is destined to remain an unending quest.