Mahnaz Yousefzadeh
New York University
This paper discusses Felice Brancacci’s mission to Egypt in 1422. Felice’s mission not only served to inaugurate the Florentine galley’s presence in the Mediterranean, but also played a role in the transformation of mercantile culture of Renaissance Florence. It further relates Felice’s Egyptian mission to his patronage of one of the most celebrated and enigmatic frescoes of Renaissance Florence—Masaccio’s Tribute Money—in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria Del Carmine Church in Florence.