Descrizione
Storia dell’arte 3, Luglio – Settembre 1969
Creighton Gilbert
The Drawings now associated with Masaccio’s Sagra
In this study, for the first time, a precise comparison is established between the ancient descriptions (by Vasari and others) of the lost Sagra of Masaccio at the Carmine, and the drawings that are today normally considered copies of this work. From the comparison there are notable differences and no analogy so precise as to confirm the relationship of the drawings with the Sagra. It could be inferred that the drawings are only free copies, not very reliable as such. free copies, not very reliable as such; however, since the affirmation of their relationship with the with the Sagra rests solely on the literary descriptions of the latter, the problem widens to the point of raising to the point of raising the suspicion that between the one and the other there is no relation whatsoever between them. Modern artistic historiography has accepted this relationship without ever producing definitive arguments on the subject, and therefore this study goes back to the origins of the relationship itself, founding it in a forgotten passage by Schmarsow.
