Ranked by many scholars as the greatest master of early Italian Renaissance painting, Masaccio (1401-1428) was the first artist to use light effects to create three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional plane. This achievement, revolutionary in Masaccio's day, is one of the painter's significant contributions to art history. This new volume in the Getty Museum's monograph series explores Masaccio's accomplishment as epitomized by the altarpiece of which the Saint Andrew panel once formed a part: The Pisa Altarpiece, one of the truly great polyptychs, or multipaneled paintings, in the history of Italian Renaissance art. It was produced for a chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa in 1426. The book also discusses Masaccio's short life and illustrious career; the commission for the altarpiece; its patron and program; the painting's original location; and the role church friars played in the actual commission. Finally, after examining the polyptych's various panels, it traces their later history and recounts how art historians came to identify them.