Strozzi in Florence do not survive, nor does the docu-
menting letter itself, apparently the fi rst written by an
Italian artist to have been recorded.
Following Meiss’s groundbreaking study (1951) of
the effect of the plague on the arts of central Italy, crit-
ics argued for a signifi cant stylistic change among the
new generation of artists, such as the Clone brothers,
Andrea (known as Orcagna) and Nardo. For many crit-
ics, Taddeo’s own reputation after 1348 is captured in
Il libro delle trecentonovelle (c. 1390) of Franco Sac-
chetti. In the pertinent story, Orcagna asks a group of
friends gathered at San Miniato al Monte to name the
best painter after Giotto, but they cannot agree. Taddeo
observes that art is in decline, a remark that stops the
conversation until someone suggests that the cosmet-
ics used by the women of Florence qualify them as the
best artists. Taddeo’s bleak view has, according to some
scholars, obscured his own genuine accomplishment in
coming to terms with the aesthetics of the new genera-
tion. Certainly, he continued to receive considerable
commissions that allowed him to live comfortably in the
Santa Croce quarter, as his tax records indicate.
The Florentines respected Taddeo’s judgment, how-
ever somber, as is indicated by the fact that he served
as an adviser to the Opera del Duomo (cathedral works)
between 1355 and 1366. His presence, which is docu-
mented—and for which the documentation is augmented
by accounts from Antonio Billi, the Anonimo Gaddiano,
and Giorgio Vasari—led to the idea that Taddeo was also
an architect and that in this capacity he fi nished Giotto’s
campanile, worked on Or San Michele, and created the
model and design for the Ponte Vecchio after the fl ood
of 1333. Architectural historians remain skeptical about
this; but it is clear that in any case, as Ghiberti noted in
I commentarii, Taddeo was very learned.
In 1348, Taddeo appeared on a list of painters who
were being considered for the completion of Alesso di
Andrea’s unfi nished polyptych of the Virgin and Child
and Saints for San Giovanni Fuorcivitas in Pistoia. In
1353, he was paid for this work, portions of which re-
main in the church. On 3 April 1353, Taddeo returned ten
fl orins and paid restitution for breaking his contract with
the Commune of Florence by failing to paint the tribunal
of the mercanzia, the high court of the merchants. That
year he also signed a Virgin and Child for Giovanni di
Ser Segna for the church of Sail Lucchese, Poggibonsi
(it was recorded as being there in seventeenth century
but is now in the Uffi zi in Florence).
In this last period Taddeo completed one of this most
memorable fresco projects, for the refectory of Santa
Croce. Vasari claimed that Giotto had created this fresco,
but scholars now accept Taddeo as the artist. Although
the date is still debated, it is increasingly thought to be
c. 1360. This unusual composition includes the a Tree
of Life, inspired by Saint Bonaventure’s Lignum vitae,
fl anked by four pictorially framed scenes devoted to
saints important to the Franciscan order. Beneath these
paintings, spanning the entire width of the wall at the end
of the refectory, Taddeo did a fresco of the Last Supper.
He depicts a table that gives the illusion of projecting
outward, at which sit Christ and the apostles, with Judas
relegated to the side nearest the friars at their own tables
in the refectory. This decidedly Franciscan iconography
concluded Taddeo’s long devotion to artistic projects
for the priory and private quarters of the Franciscans in
Florence, and it was one of the fi rst of many depictions
of the Last Supper in refectories of religious houses over
the next two centuries. It also refl ects Taddeo’s lifelong
commitment to—and success in handling—problems of
pictorial illusionism.
In 1366, Taddeo Gaddi was recorded in the register of
the Compagnia di San Luca, and that same year his wife
was identifi ed as a widow. Taddeo was buried, as Vasari
notes, by his sons Angnolo and Giovanni at Santa Croce
in the tomb he had made for his father, Gaddo.
See also Bonaventure, Saint; Giotto di Bondone;
Orcagna, Andrea di CioneFurther Reading
Anonimo Gaddiano. Il codice Magliabechiano, CL.XVII.17, ed.
C. Frey. Berlin: G. Grotesche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1892.
Billi, Antonio. Il libro di Antonio Billi, ed. Fabio Benedettucci.
Anzio (Rome): De Rubeis, 1991.
Borsook, Eve. The Mural Painters of Tuscany from Cimabue to
Andrea del Sarto. London: Phaidon, 1960. (Rev. ed., Oxford:
Clarendon, 1980.)
Cennini, Cennino. Il libro dell’arte, ed. Franco Brunello and
Licisco Magagnato. Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1971. (Work of
c. 1390.)
Cennino d’Andrea Cennini. The Craftsman’s Handbook: The
Italian Il Libro dell’arte, ed. and trans. David V. Thompson.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1933; New York:
Dover, 1960.
Gardner, Julian. “The Decoration of the Baroncelli Chapel.”
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 34, 1971, pp. 89–113.
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, c. 1450. Lorenzo Ghibertis Denkwürdigkeiten
(I commentarii), 2 vols., ed. Julius von Schlosser. Berlin: J.
Bard, 1912.
Hueck, I. “Stifter und Patronatsrecht: Dokumente zu zwei Kapel-
len der Bardi.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes
in Florenz, 20, 1976, pp. 263–270.
Ladis, Andrew. Taddeo Gaddi. Columbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1982.
Longhi, R. “Qualità e industria in Taddeo Gaddi ed altri.” Pa ra -
gone, 1959, 10(109), pp. 31–40; 10(111), pp. 3–12.
Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black
Death: The Arts, Religion, and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth
Century. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951.
Offner, Richard, and Klara Steinweg. A Critical and Historical
Corpus of Florentine Painting. New York: College of Fine
Arts, New York University, 1930–. (See suppl., ed. H. B. J.
Maginnis, 1981, pp. 67–71.)
Rave, August. Christiformitas: Studien zur franziskanischen
Ikonographie des fl orentiner Trecento am Beispiel des ehe-GADDI, TADDEO