Florence Wakes Up

Around 1400, Florence was a wealthy banking city where rivalry between families — especially the Medici — fueled an artistic explosion. Filippo Brunelleschi demonstrated linear perspective around 1415, proving mathematically that parallel lines converge at a single vanishing point.

Masaccio applied Brunelleschi's perspective in the fresco The Holy Trinity (c. 1427) at Santa Maria Novella. Visitors reportedly gasped — the painted chapel appeared to recede into the actual wall. A flat surface had become a window into space, and European painting would never look the same.