The paradox of guilt
The Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence took several centuries to be completed and had to be rebuilt after a damaging fire in the 18th century. It is home to remarkable frescoes by several important artists from the early Renaissance. These are in the Brancacci chapel by 15th century artists including Masaccio (1401-1428).
The chapel containing these murals survived the fire and later rebuild and is more fully described here: http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/Brancacci_chapel.html
Selecting Masaccio from among the other greats for this post was easy, as he can be both descriptive and enigmatic.
Firstly, he is known for his ability to imply three-dimensionality on a flat surface. The Italian term chiaroscuro, literally light-dark, describes contrasts in shades and tones. He used these to suggest form and shape, as in this self-portrait inserted in a crowd scene in one of the frescoes:
He seemingly brought people to life in his painting and is famed as an early innovator in this technique. In addition, he was adept at the newly developing use of perspective to give depth and suggest a form of realism that had challenged previous artists.
This is a view of the immense scale of the murals on just one side of the chapel:
Similar wall paintings were often a feature of Christian worship, to reinforce biblical stories read out by the educated priesthood. The effectiveness of the liturgy was improved through these visual teaching aids for a largely illiterate congregation.
The frescoes are read in sequence telling biblical stories of divine intervention and episodes from the lives of saints. The ambition and scale of this project can be seen here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Brancacci.jpg
I want to focus on the small scene in the upper left of this picture, which shows the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of eden.
Here we have Eve genuinely distraught and regretful: the woman’s response is emotional, she can’t hide her shameful feelings and tries to protect her modesty. Adam by contrast is hiding nothing except his face: the man is ashamed not for sinning, but for having been caught out. Could this be a comment on differences between men and women and their capacity to admit mistakes and move on? Is this an example of an image that is religious and social in equal measure?