Masaccio Masaccio (1401-1427), the first great painter of the Italian Renaissance, whose innovations in the use of scientific perspective inaugurated the modern era in painting
Masaccio, originally named Tommaso Cassai, was born in San Giovanni Valdarno, near Florence, on December 21, 1401
He joined the painters guild in Florence in 1422
His remarkably individual style owed little to other painters, except possibly the great 14th-century master Giotto
He was more strongly influenced by the architect Brunelleschi and the sculptor Donatello, both of whom were his contemporaries in Florence
From Brunelleschi he acquired a knowledge of mathematical proportion that was crucial to his revival of the principles of scientific perspective
From Donatello he imbibed a knowledge of classical art