The Florentine painter Masaccio (1401-28) was among the most innovatory and influential of the early masters of the Italian Renaissance. His depiction of realistically observed figures in convincing situations struck an entirely new note and, as Sir Lawrence Gowing shows in this film, his ability to render the human subject in three-dimensional space remains one of the great breakthroughs in the history of visual representation. From the outset, Masaccio was clearly the natural successor to Giotto - the first major artist of the European painting tradition - and the simple grandeur of his early triptych for the church at San Giovenale is vividly contrasted to the prevailing spirit of European Gothic art. Masaccio's masterpieces - his paintings for the Carmelite church in Pisa, and in the Florentine churches of Santa Maria del Carmine and Santa Maria Novella - are closely analysed in terms of both their painterly technique and their underlying themes. Masaccio is seen throughout as a painter whose technical mastery served a passionate realism devoid of idealizing or decorative elements - a view that puts him at the heart of any debate about the purpose and potential of great art.