Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine

Lonely Planet review

On the southern flank of Piazza del Carmine, this chapel is a treasure trove of paintings by Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio and Filippino Lippi. Above all, the frescoes by Masaccio are considered among his greatest works, representing a definitive break with Gothic art and a plunge into new worlds of expression in the early stages of the Renaissance.

His Cacciata dei Progenitori (Expulsion of Adam and Eve), on the left side of the chapel, is the bestknown work. His depiction of Eve's anguish in particular lends the image a human touch hitherto little seen in European painting. In times gone by, prudish church authorities had Adam and Eve's privates covered up.

Masaccio painted these frescoes in his early twenties and interrupted the task to go to Rome, where he died aged only 28. The cycle was completed 60 years later by Filippino Lippi. That you can even see these frescoes today is little short of miraculous. The 13th century church was nearly destroyed by a fire in the late 18th century. About the only thing the fire spared was the chapel.