Chap. XXV. MASACCIO’S DEATH. 547 usually assigned to Masolino. The proportions and out lines of the long and slender forms are yet distinctly those of Masaccio; and this altarpiece alone suffices to illustrate the remarks which have already been made as to the authorship of the Brancacci frescos. The gallery of the Uffizi boasts of two pictures by Masaccio. One is supposed to be his own portrait in full front, wearing a cap, life size, and youthful. 1 It is not like the alleged portrait at the Brancacci, and has not so much the cha racter of a work by Masaccio as of one by Filippino Lippi. It is painted with much skill and ease and with slight colour on a tile. The second picture of the Uffizi 2 is also on tile and represents an aged man, at three quarters with a brown barret and dress. The size is that of nature. Though a fine portrait it has not the breadth and ease of hand of Masaccio, and is possibly by Sandro Botticelli. 3 An inexplicable mystery overhangs the last days of Masaccio. His disappearance from Florence gave rise to whispered rumours of poison, 4 which still vibrated in the atmosphere of the sixteenth century; yet the truth was, nobody knew what had become of him. He had left the finest fresco of the Brancacci chapel incom plete, and abandoned Florence, his mother and brother. They had to answer for debts which he had been unable to pay. His creditor Niccolo de Ser Lapo still claimed sixty eight lire. The office of the Catasto again presented its income tax paper; but in vain. That paper still exists filled up in part from Masaccio’s form of 1427, but sent back with the words in a strange 1 No. 286 of the Uffizi Cat. 2 No. 1119 of the Cat. 3 In the Corsini gallery (36) a half length portrait of a man, full face, with a ring in his hand, in red cap and dress, is assigned to Masaccio, hut is by Botticelli. In the Torrigiani gallery at Florence an injured portrait, said to be of Masaccio himself, s / 4 in a red cap 35* and black dress, life size bust, is ascribed to Masaccio, but displays the character of Filippino in the frescos of the Brancacci. If this be the portrait noted by Cinelli (Vid. Com. to Vas. Vol. V. p. 259), it has no likeness to that of the Uffizi. 4 Vas. Vol. III. p. 165. 5 Vide Gior. Stor. d. Arch. Tosc. ub. sup. 3 d quarter 1860.