The Quattrocento: the early artistic Renaissance

The Quattrocento, the fifteenth century, marks the birth of Renaissance art proper, centered above all on Florence. Filippo Brunelleschi formulated mathematical linear perspective around 1415-1420, demonstrating the technique with celebrated painted panels of the Piazza della Signoria and the Baptistery. Masaccio applied Brunelleschi's discovery in the fresco "The Holy Trinity" (c. 1427-1428) in Santa Maria Novella, the first painting to employ rigorous mathematical perspective, and also painted the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel (c. 1425-1427) in Santa Maria del Carmine.