Cappella Brancacci
Tucked inside the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno neighbourhood, the Cappella Brancacci contains a cycle of frescoes begun by Masolino and Masaccio in the 1420s that literally changed the course of Western art — Michelangelo himself came here as a student to copy them. Yet on most days the chapel sees only a fraction of the visitors queuing outside the Uffizi, making it one of th
Why these frescoes matter
Masaccio's 'The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise' is considered the first truly naturalistic depiction of human emotion in Renaissance painting — the anguish on Eve's face is startling even 600 years later.
'The Tribute Money', showing Christ instructing Peter to find a coin in a fish's mouth, is a masterclass in atmospheric perspective and unified narrative that no painter had achieved before Masaccio.
The chapel was left unfinished when Masaccio died at 27 in 1428; Filippino Lippi completed the remaining scenes 60 years later — spot the stylistic shift and you understand half a century of artistic evolution in one room.
Visiting in practice
Entry is timed and limited to 30 visitors at a time, which means you get an unhurried, uncrowded experience that is rare in Florence — book ahead at musefirenze.it.
The chapel is in the Oltrarno, Florence's artisan quarter on the south bank of the Arno; combine your visit with lunch at one of the neighbourhood's trattorias on Piazza di Santo Spirito, a ten-minute walk away.
Photography inside the chapel is not permitted, which paradoxically makes visitors look more carefully — allow 45 minutes to absorb the detail properly.
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