In 1424, the 23-year-old Florentine artist Masaccio was commissioned to paint frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. As one enters this chapel, the first panel on the upper left is his work The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The scene has an austerity that might induce a perfunctory glance, but the sculpture-like realism of the nude bodies conveys an intimacy that invites our gaze to linger. The bodies are beautifully rendered by employing the chiaroscuro method of light and shadow. Adam and Eve stand in our realm; they appear of this earth and not merely as artistic representations. Their sensual bodies and their emotions disclose their humanity.