Masolino da Panicale.

With Roberts's book, a comprehensive study of Masolino finally is available in English; as an added bonus, the author summarizes much of the research on Masolino and Masaccio that was inspired by the recent cleaning of the Brancacci Chapel frescoes. Roberts does not regard Masolino as the inferior member of the famous team of two who originally painted that chapel, in part because Masaccio needed Masolino's technical skill in fresco painting and in part because Masolino was older, having been born, in Roberts's view, in the early 1380s. In adhering to this early birth date, Roberts follows the majority of scholars; indeed, one of the key features of this book is the balanced presentation of the up-to-date research of others rather than the forging of new theories or approaches or the discovery of new documents or technical information.

Roberts's book takes the form of the traditional chronological survey of the artist's life and art, with documents, a catalogue of works, and an admirable bibliography as appendices. Roberts's main focus is on authorship and style. Each phase of Masolino's career is covered in an even-handed manner, although one might quibble with her dating of certain works. Roberts concludes, reasonably, that Gentile da Fabriano's influence, and to some extent Starnina's and Lorenzo Monaco's, was more lasting on Masolino than Masaccio's. As Roberts sees it, throughout his career Masolino painted light-footed, decorative figures that are natural but are conceived in idealized patterns without regard to skeletal or muscular structure. Apparently, Masolino did not draw his figures from life but used stock poses. In their restrained gestures and placid movements, Masolino's figures inhabit a world little influenced by Masaccio. Nor does Masolino's use of perspective reflect Masaccio's high standards. After 1425, when his collaboration with Masaccio began, Masolino often used a single vanishing point, but he ignored the subtleties of perspective such as consistency of scale. Later, in his frescoes at Castiglione Olona, Masolino used perspective to create deep corridors of space rather than to undergird his narrative content. In doing so, he influenced artists such as Domenico Veneziano and Jacopo Bellini, who produced similar effects only much later.

A number of intriguing ideas are put forward by Roberts, but in her pressing need to move forward through her chronological discussion of Masolino's career she sometimes fails to explain or develop these ideas fully. For example, she discusses the thematic, iconographic arrangement of the Brancacci Chapel frescoes by division into separate walls, but she hardly mentions the rich interrelationships of cross-wall correspondences. Further, she gives several reasons for Masolino's decreasing interest in the style of Masaccio in the late 1420s, such as his sojourn to Hungary, the death of Masaccio, and the taste of his patrons, but she does not pursue these thoughts that seem to beg for further exploration.

Masolino was an artist neither of the Gothic International Style nor of the fully-formed Renaissance style; rather, he created renown for himself by occupying a niche in between the two. This fact does not necessarily imply a want of stylistic conviction; many artists younger than Masolino did not follow up on Masaccio's monumental achievement. Although Masolino lacked Masaccio's humanist aspirations, he successfully adapted to the art market at a time when style was rapidly changing. This quality is demonstrated in Roberts's evidence that Masolino worked with other artists besides Masaccio; he suited himself to the circumstances of collaborative enterprise and to the business, as much as to the art, of art. Similarly, he adjusted his style to Lombard traditions when he went to Castiglione Olona. The issue of Masolino as entrepreneur is among many speculative matters that Roberts might have explored had her book been conceived in more conceptual terms.

TROY THOMAS Penn State Harrisburg