
The Tribute Money
1428 · Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
Three moments run in a single frame: the tax demanded, Peter pulling the coin from a fish, and Peter paying up at the right.
★ 8.7

Three moments run in a single frame: the tax demanded, Peter pulling the coin from a fish, and Peter paying up at the right.

Eve throws back her head and howls while Adam hides his face, the bodies heavy and casting real shadows. Michelangelo came to study it.

Gabriel bows to Mary under the loggia while Adam and Eve are driven out of the garden at the left, the sin this undoes.

Serene, elegant nudes about to ruin everything. It faces Masaccio's Expulsion across the same chapel, calm before the Fall against anguish after.