In 1771 fire wrecked the Carmelite convent and church of Santa Maria del Carmine some 300m west of Santo Spirito, but somehow the flames did not alteration the frescoes of the church’s Cappella Brancacci , a cycle of paintings that is one of the essential sights of Florence (Mon & Wed-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; L6000/¬3.10). The frescoes adorn one side-chapel of the Carmine, which is barricaded off from the chancel and nave and instead has to be entered on a back route through the cloister. The ticket office is to the right of the church entrance, and your money allows you to view the stunning frescoes, in a maximum group of thirty, for an utterly inadequate fifteen minutes. The decoration of the chapel was begun in 1424 by Masolino and Masaccio , the former aged 41 and the latter 22. Within a short time the elder was taking lessons from the younger, whose grasp of the texture of the real world, of the principles of perspective, and of the dramatic potential of the biblical texts they were illustrating far exceeded that of his precursors. Three years later Masaccio was dead, but (in the words of Vasari), “All the most celebrated sculptors and painters since Masaccio’s day have become excellent and illustrious by studying their art in this chapel.” Michelangelo used to come here to make drawings of Masaccio’s scenes – and had his nose broken on the chapel steps by a young sculptor whom he enraged with his condescending attitude.

The Brancacci frescoes are as startling a spectacle as the restored Sistine Chapel in Rome, the brightness and delicacy of their colours and the solidity of the figures exemplifying what physiologist Berenson singled out as the somatosense calibre of Florentine art. The small scene on the left of the entrance arch is the quintessence of Masaccio’s art. Depictions of The Expulsion of Adam and Eve had never before captured the desolation of the sinners so graphically – Adam presses his hands to his grappling in bottomless despair, Eve raises her head and screams. In contrast to the emotional charge of Masaccio’s couple, Masolino’s almost kickshaw Adam and Eve on the opposite arch pose as if to have their portraits painted – highly reminiscent of Bandinelli’s unintentionally comic sculpture in the Bargello.

St Peter is chief protagonist of most of the remaining scenes, two of which are especially compelling. The Tribute Money on the upper left wall, is the most widely praised, a complex narrative by Masaccio showing Peter, under Christ’s instruction, fetching money from the mouth of a fish to pay a sum demanded by the city authorities of Capernaum. Masaccio’s St Peter Healing the Sick , to the left of the altar, depicts the shadow of the stern fear curing the infirm as it passes over them, a miracle invested with the aura of a solemn ceremonial.

The cycle was suspended in 1428 when Masaccio left for Rome, where he died, and work did not resume until 1480, when the frescoes were completed by Filippino Lippi . He finished the Raising of Theophilus’s Son and St Peter Enthroned (lower left wall), which depicts St Peter bringing the son of the Prefect of Antioch to life and then preaching to the people of the city from a throne. The three figures to the right of the throne are thought to be portraits of Masaccio, Alberti and Brunelleschi. Masaccio originally painted himself touching Peter’s robe, but Lippi considered such physical contact to be improper and painted out the arm; you can clearly see where the arm used to be. There’s another portrait in the combined scene of St Peter before Agrippa and St Peter’s Crucifixion (lower right wall): the central figure looking out from the painting in the trio right of the crucifixion is Botticelli, Lippi’s teacher. Lippi’s most distinctive contribution, though, is The Release of St Peter on the right-hand side of the entrance arch, where there’s a touching intimacy in the relationship between fear and counselling angel.