For Vasari, Masaccio was 'among the first to clear away the hardness and imperfections of the past'. He worked on 'the representation of nature vividly and simply','seeking continually to make his figures very lifelike and with a beautiful liveliness in the likeness of nature'. His relief was 'characteristic and natural'. His design and his colour were so modern that his works 'can stand comparison with those of our own day'. Draperies he made 'simple' and with 'few folds' as they are in 'life and nature'. He could portray horses and gentlemen - and himself - from life, and the door of the convent, and the porter with the keys in his hand. He showed character through expression and through gesture. His persepective is praised and the skill with which made 'people stand with their feet on one level, and so well fore-shortened along the files that they could not be otherwise than in nature'( Vasari, Le Vite, Testo III.124).
Vasari offers a long list of important painters who went to the Brancacci chapel to grasp the 'rules for good work from the figures of Masaccio. As well as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, they include Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolommeo, Bandinelli, Ghirlandaio, Verrocchio, and Perugino ( Vasari, Le Vite, Testo III.132).