G

GADDI, TADDEO

(fl. mid-1320s, d. 1366)
Taddeo Gaddi was the leading painter of the Florentine
school after the death of Giotto in 1337, as early sources
and documents confi rm. In the general literature, Giotto
continues to overshadow this very capable artist, but
specialists have long recognized not only Taddeo’s
continuation of Giotto’s monumental style but also his
innovative, earthy wit; his subtle understanding of light
and color; and his extensive and varied work in fresco,
panel painting, and window design.
About 1330, Taddeo matriculated in the Arte dei
Medici e Speziali. Between 1331 and 1337, the account
books of the Bardi banking company (Ser Miniato di
Ser Biagio Boccadibue, 1322–1343, Archivio di Stato,
Notarile antecosimiano B 1951) note that Taddeo deco-
rated Gualterotto di Jacopo de’ Bardi’s chapel of Saint
Louis of Toulouse and Saint Louis of France at Santa
Croce in Florence. Nothing of this project remains.
The fi rst documented extant painting by Taddeo is
from 1334: a signed and dated beautiful small, portable
triptych (now in Berlin, Gemaeldeg. 1079–1081). This
work is in the tradition of Bernardo Daddi and suggests
Taddeo’s interest in the less monumental form that was
then gaining popularity.
The major extant fresco cycle attributed to Taddeo
from these early years is in the Baroncelli Chapel at
Santa Croce. Its chronology is debated by scholars.
The earlier suggested date, February 1328, is based on
a tomb inscription in the chapel, for members of the
Vanni and Baroncelli families. The later possible date,
the 1330s, is based on a series of documents associated
with the Augustinian friar Simone Fidati, believed by
some scholars to have inspired the iconography of the
cycle. These frescoes—which are devoted to the life of
the Virgin—exemplify Taddeo’s early style. Although

Taddeo was infl uenced by Giotto’s cycle in the Peruzzi

Chapel in Santa Croce, he is more fascinated with

pictorial space, lighting, and lively anecdotal episodes

than Giotto, who favored greater psychological subtlety.

As Ladis (1982) has noted, Taddeo’s Marriage of the

Virgin seems to refer considerably to the mattinata, the

shivaree that satirized widowers’ marriages and other

unlikely marriages. The imagery is in the spirit of Boc-

caccio rather than the heavy morality of an Augustinian

preacher. Taddeo’s innovative use of light to convey

miraculous revelation is exemplifi ed in the Annunciation

to the Shepherds, where natural light from a window is

transformed into a divine light emitted by an angel and

falling on the awakened shepherds.

An equally important commission in these earlier

years was a collection of panels (now in the Accademia

in Florence) devoted to the parallel lives of Christ and

Saint Francis of Assisi. These panels were broken

apart in 1810, and scholars have debated both their

original confi guration and their attribution. Taddeo

is now the undisputed creator of the small quatrefoil

images, probably dating from before the frescoes in

the Baroncelli Chapel; but their arrangement as part

of a reliquary cabinet remains disputed. The saturated

color of the sacristy panels in tempera, combined with

the miraculous expressive light, represents an alterna-

tive to the monumental fi gures more typical of fresco

as a medium and is an important element of Taddeo’s

powerful compositions.

In the period from Giotto’s death (1337) until the

onslaught of the Black Plague (1348), Taddeo and his

shop had many commissions, although the evidence

has been poorly preserved for the best-documented

frescoes, done between 1341 and 1342 in the crypt of

San Miniato al Monte in Florence. Taddeo’s works for

the Gambacorti family in Pisa and subsequently for the