The Brancacci Chapel is located on the right side of the major altar in the Church of S. Maria del Carmine in Florence.  The name is from the Brancacci family, owner of the Chapel, that commissioned the famous pictorial cycle covering the three walls with histories of San Peter as well as two episodes from the Genesi:  the “Original Awful” and the “Expulsion from the Eden”.

The decorative works started 1420 under the guide of Masolino that used one of his student, Masaccio, soon to become one of the most important masters of the Florentine Renaissance.  Following economic and political difficulties encountered by the Brancacci, the commissioned work was not ultimate.
Only at the end of the 1400 the family was able to see the work finished thanks to the work of Filippino Lippi.
The most famous panel regarding the life of San Peter is the “Tributo.” Assigned with certainty to the handwork of Masaccio, this element of the cycle presents again the time in which San Peter under the order of Christ took from the mouth of a fish the money necessary to travel to the town of Cafarnao.
The size of this artwork is given by the fact that the painter placed in one single scene three different moments, mantaining the same landscape in the background and the same atmosphere.
At the end of the eighteenth century the Church underwent to a devastating fire that destroyed it almost completely: the only part remained undamaged was just the Brancacci Chapel.
Thanks to the accurate renovations was possible to bring back to life the left fragments of the panels covering the wall.
For reservation:
Thanks to jwalthew and bethanytampafl for the pictures.