at some time while he was working on the "brancacci chapel", masaccio painted a fresco for another church in florence, "santa maria novella", the church of the dominican order. this is a very remarkable painting and one of masaccio's most famous. it shows the "holy trinity", (or god in three parts). god is shown as the eternal creator, as the humble sacrifice in jesus on the cross and as the inspiring spirit. on either side of the cross stand the virgin mary and saint john. the two kneeling figures are the family who paid for the painting.