About the linear perspective that didn't change the Medieval outlook, or did it?

Massacio's Trinity is considered to be one of the defining paintings of the Italian Renaissance. It is also seen as one of most important artworks in all of the Western tradition thanks to it revolutionary use of linear perspective - something that had disappeared out of the European art history records in the centuries that came after the fall of the West Roman Empire.  A 588.8 x 211.6 cm rectangular fresco, which is to be found in Santa Maria Novella, a Dominican church in Florence, in Italy, is a multidimensional painting created in a exceptionally interesting transitionary period of Italian art.

 To fully understand a painting such as the one created by Massacio, one has to take into careful consideration all of the aspects that accompanied the artwork's creation. A work of art does not simply function in a contextless void. The idea of "l'art pour l'art" as much as it might seem tempting for the post-modernistic viewer, is achronological and limiting.

Masaccio's fresco was a rendition of a religious, one could even say, dogmatic theme - the Holy Trinity combined with Crucifixion scene that in itself could be interpreted as Deesis. It was also a commission for wealthy patron whom we might see in the foreground with his wife, both of them kneeling and contemplating the biblical scene that takes place in front of them. The scene is framed with architecture that divides and structures the space as well as gives the viewer insight into the immaterial sphere thanks to the ingenious use of linear perspective that curves the barrel vault and elevates God the Father.

Trinity is the turning point for the Western history of art - from now on, perspective is the inherent part of any art work, even if it is being negated by the painter, it is still taken into consideration. Even though it has all the right to be called revolutionary, Masaccio's work still contains a relic of the past.

In the bottom part of the fresco, there is a cadaver tomb with an inscription written just above the corpse: "I once was what you are and what I am you also will be", which in itself alludes to a very popular Medieval literary theme of The Three Living and the Three Dead. A grim reminder of one's ultimate fate in a truly Medieval way. This memento mori is not only a reminder and a warning of one's mortality but it is also a relic of the past period, one that had been marked with an outbreak of the Plague, an occurrence so horrific and devastating that it might have had tremendous influence on the late Medieval art (said influence is heavily disputed and even being called into question altogether as of recently).

This element, however, becomes redefined when put into the juxtaposition with the other parts of the painting. It's not a simple reminder of one's morality anymore - when put into the context of Crucifixion, the skeleton can be understood here as the bones of the patriarch Adam who was supposedly buried on Golgota. Thus, he can too, partake in a sacrifice of Jesus (his bones may be washed with Saviour's blood) and achieve redemption. As such, its symbolism transcends the reality of the fresco and extends itself towards the viewer. Who, upon being reminded of their mortality and fragility of their life, will find solace and promise of redemption in Mary's gaze that is directed at them.

Such redefinition and remodelling of a known memento mori theme, makes this painting into a fine transitionary piece of art, some elements of which (linear perspective) will be copied and carried into the new period, while others (memento mori motive) will fall into oblivion and become obsolete in syntax of art.