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... most opulent works, and always keeping a religious subject as the central concern of the work. Since the end of the international Gothic trend in art, the quattrocento provided artists with new ways of thinking about painting - the earliest examples of which are probably found in the Brancacci Chapel painted by Massaccio (and Masolino in parts). Certainly, the earliest examples of Fra' Angelico's work also bear the marks of international Gothicism -his altarpiece at San Pier Martire (1428) is a simple three-panelled triptych, showing the Madonna and Child surrounded by four Dominican saints in a centralised and very linear composition. The Madonna wears robes of ultramarine blue and the flat 'wallpaper' background is gold leaf and sgrafito. The Child stands on her lap rigidly, and without any naturalistic expression, his ornamental robes are like the dress of an older man and fall awkwardly. There is only one possibly Massaccian innovation ...