Artists and Their Artwork Depicting Their Era

Running head: ARTISTS AND THEIR ARTWORK DEPICTING THEIR ERA
ARTISTS AND THEIR ARTWORK DEPICTING THEIR ERA
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ARTISTS AND THEIR ARTWORK EXPLAINING THEIR ERA
The work of art is almost as old as the society itself. Various artists have been born since
the ancient times that have created artworks that are admired even today. The amazing thing
about these artworks have been the the artists’ perception of her or his time and place being
deeply and clearly visible on those artworks. This paper aims to assess the artwork of two artists
– one traditional (Masaccio) and one modern (Pablo Picasso) – to understand the reflection of
time and place in their artworks.
Masaccio is considered one of the greatest renaissance painters that the world has ever
seen. Born in Italy, Masaccio was a renaissance painter who was active during the Quattrocento
period. San Giovenale Triptych painted in 1422 is said to be Masaccio’s earliest work. The piece
of work was mainly designed as an altarpiece for the chapel most probably for some secondary
chapel at that time. Masaccio then finished one of his most famous paintings titled The Tribute
Money during the years between 1425 and 1427 (Carman, 2016). Masolino, another painter
working in the Brancacci chapel in Florence assisted Masaccio in completing this artwork.
However, Masolino abandoned Masaccio after a few years and Masaccio too left the painting
incomplete after he went to Rome where he died in 1428 (Carman, 2016). The painting depicts
the fresco scene involving Jesus Christ and his disciples in the place of Capernicum. Masaccio’s
intention behind painting this fresco scene was to end the debate surrounding the incident of
Christ taking out gold or silver coin from the mouth of a fish. While some argued that the fish
had swallowed the gold coin and Christ only took it out, others were of the view that Christ used
his magical powers to bring out gold coin from the mouth of the fish. Masaccio decided that he
would paint this incident taking a closer look at it. The art clearly resembled the happenings of
that time with Christ surrounded by his disciples in Capernicum where they had to pay taxes
levied on them by the king. The tax collector confronts Christ, as seen in the center of the