Masaccio's Triptych of St. Juvenal exhibited for the first time alongside the greats of the time

Six hundred years after the execution of Masaccio ’s Triptych of San Giovenale (San Giovanni Valdarno, 1401 - Rome, 1428), the masterpiece of the great artist, initiator of the Renaissance in painting, is being exhibited from today, April 23, 2022, for the first time in comparison with the great painters of his time. From April 23 to October 23, in fact, the Masaccio Museum of Sacred Art in Reggello (Florence) will host the exhibition Masaccio and the Masters of Renaissance Art in comparison to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Triptych of San Giovenale, promoted and organized by the Municipality of Reggello and the Masaccio Museum of Sacred Art, and included in the project Terre degli Uffizi 2022, conceived and implemented by Gallerie degli Uffizi and Fondazione CR Firenze, within their respective initiatives Uffizi Diffusi and Piccoli Grandi Musei.

It is the inscription on the lower edge of the triptych depicting the Madonna Enthroned with Child and Saints Bartholomew, Blaise, Juvenal and Anthony Abbot that reminds us of the date of execution, inscribed in modern humanistic capital letters instead of the traditional Gothic ones: ANNO DOMINI MCCCCXXII A DI VENTITRE DAP(RILE). This is the first work known to us executed by the great painter Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone known as Masaccio, a man of genius whose art revolutionized 15th-century Italian painting and marked the artistic imagination of Valdarno, and beyond, over the centuries. Considered revolutionary for that moment in history, and defined by Antonio Paolucci as “the painting in which we find the genetic code of the great modern painting of the West,” this work proves the veracity of what Vasari wrote about the painter in his Lives, namely that in Valdarno one “still sees figures made by him in his early boyhood.”

In addition to trying to illustrate the historical and artistic circumstances of the creation of the work, the exhibition aims to reread and deepen the artist’s ties with the painting of his time in which “formidable ferments of novelty” were at work. Moreover, it searches for more certain references on Masaccio’s artistic formation - in many respects still nebulous and uncertain - by gathering around the Triptych works by artists who were Masaccio’s contemporaries and who, albeit from often different perspectives, shared with him the yearning for a renewed painting both in terms of content and iconographic models.

The authorship of the Triptych of Saint Juvenal remained unknown until a few decades ago. In 1956, the then parish priest of the small church of San Giovenale, Don Renato Lombardi, realized that the Triptych placed behind the high altar was deteriorating irreparably due to humidity and asked the Soprintendenza alle Gallerie di Firenze for its restoration. The painting was transferred to Florence in 1961 to be presented at the Exhibition of Ancient Sacred Art by the dioceses of Florence, Fiesole and Prato and to be finally restored and studied. Luciano Berti, then an official of the Soprintendenza and since 1969 director of the Uffizi, an art historian and museologist of the finest acumen and marked sensitivity, after an intense and lucid analysis, assigned its authorship to Masaccio, considering it a cornerstone of early Renaissance painting. Since then, the Triptych has been the focus of a continuous crescendo of interest, with studies and in-depth investigations.

The exhibition, curated by Angelo Tartuferi, Lucia Bencistà and Nicoletta Matteuzzi, proposes a direct comparison, hitherto unpublished, between Masaccio and the great Dominican painter Beato Angelico (Vicchio di Mugello, 1395/1400-1455), an artist of great professionalism up-to-date with the most advanced art of his time, the first and most gifted connoisseur of Masaccio’s innovations, whose celebrated Triptych of St. Peter Martyr from the Museum of San Marco in Florence, which solid and recent studies place within the range of influence of the young Valdarno artist, will be on display. At the same time, and in parallel, the exhibition intends to present a cross-section of the artistic production gravitating around Masaccio’s beginnings, before or shortly after his first manifestation as an autonomous painter, presenting works, sometimes new to critics, by painters also working in the Valdarno area and still linked to the late Gothic figurative tradition.

Other artists from the Florentine milieu of the last quarter of the 14th century who will be on display include Masolino da Pan icale (Panicale di Renacci, San Giovanni Valdarno, 1383/84-documented until 1435), Masaccio’s companion in the undertaking of the Brancacci Chapel and a refined artist who, while remaining tied to his late Gothic origins, faces the new Renaissance world by working a synthesis between elements of tradition and new classical ideals, present with the Uffizi’s famous Madonna of Humility. Also in the exhibition itinerary is a surprising “firstling” by Filippo Lippi (Florence, c. 1406 - Spoleto 1469), a great experimenter who was to become one of the highest masters of the Renaissance and who, in his youthful phase, was strongly influenced by Masaccio, as shown by the Madonna and Child from a private collection, present in the exhibition, painted at a young age, in which the painter declares himself to be a Masaccio of the first hour.

“It is no coincidence that the exhibition,” comments Uffizi director Eike Schmidt, “is concurrent with the one on Donatello at Palazzo Strozzi and the Bargello Museum. In this way Florence and Reggello are united in the study and reconsideration of one of the most extraordinary moments of art and culture in the West, the beginning of the Renaissance.”

“This is the first of eight exhibitions that will turn the spotlight on the rich artistic heritage of our territory,” stresses the general director of Fondazione CR Firenze, Gabriele Gori. “The Terre degli Uffizi project offers a unique opportunity to decentralize tourist flows and enhance minor museums. We hope that, as it was for the exhibitions of the first edition of the project, many people will visit this unprecedented exhibition.”

“The sixth centenary of the Triptych of San Giovenale represents for Reggello an important and precious appointment that reminds us of how strong was Masaccio’s bond with this territory and its people,” explains Reggello Mayor Piero Giunti. “Reggello and its community have looked and look, today more than ever, at the Triptych of San Giovenale with pride, aware that they guard a ’precious treasure’ to be protected and made known.”

The Terre degli Uffizi project is also made possible thanks to a collaboration with Unicoop Firenze. All information about the exhibitions can be found on the dedicated website. Also available inside are some video documentaries recounting the exhibitions of the first edition.

Pictured is the Triptych of San Giovenale.

Masaccio's Triptych of St. Juvenal exhibited for the first time alongside the greats of the time

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