Cappella Brancacci (Santa Maria del Carmine)

There is little to say about the rough stone facade or the interior of Santa Maria del Carmine; the church burned in 1771 and was reconstructed shortly after. Miraculously, however, the church's Cappella Brancacci, one of the seminal works of Florentine Renaissance painting, survived both the flames and attempts by the authorities to replace it with something more fashionable.

Three artists worked on the Brancacci’s frescoes: Masolino, who began them in 1425, and who designed the cycle, his pupil Masaccio, who worked on them alone for a year before following his master to Rome, where he died mysterious at the age of 27, and Filippino Lippi, who finished them 50 years later, when the Brancacci, who were silk merchants exiled by the Medici in 1436, were permitted to return.