wers, still picturesque and splendid. Turning thence back into Via
Maggio, and passing along Via S. Spirito and Via S. Frediano, you come
at last on the left into Piazza del Carmine, before the great church of
that name. The church of the Carmine and the monastery now suppressed
of the Carmelites across Arno were originally built in 1268, with the
help of the great families whose homes were in this part of the
city,--the Soderini, the Nerli, the Serragli; it remained unfinished for
more than two centuries, and in 1771 it was unhappily almost wholly
destroyed by fire, only the sacristy and the Brancacci Chapel escaping.
Famous now because there Fra Lippo Lippi lived, and there Masolino and
Masaccio painted, it is in itself one of the most meretricious and
worthless buildings of the eighteenth century, full of every sort of
flamboyant ornament and insincere, uncalled-for decoration; and yet, in
spite of every vulgarity, how spacious it is, as though even in that
evil hour the Latin genius could not wholly forget its delight in space
and light. It is then really only the Brancacci Chapel in the south
transept that has any interest for us, since there, better than anywhere
else, we may see the work of two of the greatest masters of the first
years of the Quattrocento.

[Illustration: PONTE VECCHIO]

Masolino, according to Mr. Berenson, was born in 1384, and died after
1423, while his pupil Masaccio was born in 1401, and died, one of the
youngest of Florentine painters, in 1428. Here in the Brancacci Chapel
it might seem difficult to decide what may be the work of Masolino and
what of his pupil, and indeed Crowe and Cavalcaselle have denied that
Masolino worked here at all. Later criticism, however, interested in
work that marks a revolution in Tuscan painting, has made it plain that
certain frescoes here are undoubtedly from his hand, and Mr. Berenson
gives him certainly the Fall of Adam, the Raising of Tabitha, and the
Miracle at the Golden Gate, above on the right, as well as the Preaching
of St. Peter, above to the left on the altar wall. Masaccio's work is
more numerous, consisting of the Expulsion from the Temple and the
Payment of the Tribute, above on the right, part of the fresco below the
last; St. Peter Baptizing, above to the left on the altar wall, as well
as the two frescoes, St. Peter and St. John healing the Sick, and St.
Peter and St. John giving Alms, below on either side of the altar. The
rest of the fres