The first fresco, in the nave alongside, the entrance of the chapel, depicts our first parents at the moment of the Temptation in the Garden of Eden, Figure 87. It is stilted and awkward, yet withal dignified. The theme, which indeed has seldom been a happy one for any artist, has not greatly interested the painter. He has made it an occasion for studying the nude. We have what the modern student calls an academy. As such, it is able. The construction is highly simplified and is wholly in masses of light and dark, the contour is freely effaced. The mystery of background foliage is well suggested, the placing of the head of the serpent between the tree and the figures is a perfect example of the new art of aerial perspective. No painter but Masaccio had even the notion of such an effect at this moment. Technically the handling of this detail is just the same as that of the vastly more beautiful angel in the Expulsion from Eden, Figure 91. Finally, the impassive mask of the Eve is identical with that of the Virgin, in Masaccio’s panel in the Uffizi. We presumably have to do with an experimental phase of Masaccio about the year 1423–5. About that time Masolino probably was called to Buda to work for the extraordinary Florentine soldier of fortune, Filippo Scolari, better known by his nickname of Pippo Spano. If Vasari is right, Masaccio had been required to prove his ability to continue the work by painting a St. Paul near the bell-cord of the Church, in competition with a St. Jerome by Masolino. Both are lost. [Illustration: FIG. 87. Masaccio. The Temptation.—_Brancacci Chapel._ ] [Illustration: FIG. 91. Masaccio. The Expulsion.—_Brancacci Chapel._ ] [Illustration: FIG. 88. Masaccio. St. Peter raising Tabitha and healing the Cripple.—_Brancacci Chapel._ ]