Pisa Altarpiece

The chapel was owned by the notary Giuliano di Colino, who commissioned the work on February 19, 1426 for the sum of 80 florins.

The altarpiece was dismantled and dispersed to various collections and museums in the 18th century, but an attempted reconstruction was made possible due to a detailed description of the work by Vasari in 1568.

[2] The altarpiece's central panel was Madonna and Child with Angels, produced in collaboration with Masaccio's brother Giovanni and with Andrea di Giusto, now in the National Gallery, London.

Vasari says these were the saints shown in the predella narrative scenes: Peter, John the Baptist, Julian and Nicholas.

In this way, he attempts to tie the viewer to the scene, to make the sacred accessible to the ordinary Christian.

The altarpiece's central panel was Madonna and Child with Angels, produced in collaboration with Masaccio's brother Giovanni and with Andrea di Giusto.

In many ways the style of the painting is traditional; the expensive gold background and ultramarine draperies of the Virgin, her enlarged scale, and her hierarchical presentation (ceremoniously enthroned) all fit within the late-medieval formulas for the representation of Mary and Jesus in glory.

They are imagined to be kneeling in front of Mary, and could easily lean forward to kiss the foot of Jesus.

At right Saint Nicholas is secretly pushing gold through the bedroom window of two poor girls, to provide a dowry for them.