Masaccio is depicted standing, in a calm and controlled posture that lends the figure a natural presence, free from emphasis or theatricality. The face, concentrated and serious, is treated with deliberate restraint, conveying less a psychological portrait than an idea of the artist as thinker and reformer.

Garriga does not seek biographical anecdote but rather a timeless image of intellectual authority.

The artist wears a stylised Renaissance costume, whose carefully rendered fabrics and decorative details give the sculpture a subtle tactile richness. The ample tunic, finely worked, reinforces the association between humanist dignity and artistic erudition, situating the figure within an immediately recognisable visual tradition. A key iconographic element structures the composition. Masaccio holds in his hand a sheet identifiable

as a sketch of The Tribute Money (Il pagamento del tributo), the major fresco in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence. This choice goes beyond a simple citation of a masterpiece. According to a longstanding historiographical tradition, first transmitted by Vasari and later echoed in modern scholarship, Masaccio is believed to have portrayed himself in this fresco in the guise of the apostle placed to the right of the central scene. Though widely debated today, the hypothesis remains plausible and lends the sheet held by the figure a reflective significance. Masaccio thus appears as a conscious author of his work and of his role in the history of painting. By incorporating this motif, Garriga offers a learned interpretation of Masaccio, presenting him not merely as an Old Master but as the initiator of a pictorial modernity fully aware of the innovations he introduced. The sculpture therefore stands at the intersection of historical homage and a reflection on

the emergence of the modern artist. Presented at the Turin Exhibition of 1870, the work was noted by contemporary critics and received an award before being acquired for a museum, attesting to the early institutional recognition of this thoughtful and measured interpretation of Masaccio by a Spanish sculptor active on the Italian artistic scene.