Taddeo Gaddi
Italian painter and architect
1290 CE to 1366 CE
Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1290, Florence – 1366, Florence) is a medieval Italian painter and architect.
World
The Middle of The Earth
View →Related Events
Showing 4 events out of 4 total
Taddeo Gaddi, the son of Gaddo di Zanobi, called Gaddo Gaddi, had been a member of Giotto's workshop from 1313 to 1337, when his master died.
His principal work is the cycle of Stories of the Virgin in the Baroncelli Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence (1328–1338).
Later he perhaps paints the cabinet tiles in the sacristy of the same church, now divided among the Galleria dell'Accademia of Florence and museums in Munich and Berlin.
These works show his mastership of Giotto's new style, to which he has added a personal experimentation in the architectural backgrounds, such as in the staircase of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Baroncelli Chapel.
Florentines construct the Ponte Vecchio, a stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge, around to bridge the Arno River.
The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times, when the via Cassia crossed the river at this point.
The Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood.
The bridge first appears in a document of 996.
After being destroyed by a flood in 1117 it was reconstructed in stone but swept away again in 1333 save two of its central piers, as noted by Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica.
It is rebuilt in 1345: Giorgio Vasari will record the tradition in his day that attributes its design to Taddeo Gaddi, who, besides Giotto, will be one of the few artistic names of the trecento still recalled two hundred years later.
Modern historians present Neri di Fioravanti as a possible candidate.
Taddeo Gaddi was considered Giotto's most talented pupil, according to Giorgio Vasari: in 1347 he is placed at the top in a list of Florence's most renowned painters.
According to some scholars, Taddeo collaborated in the Stefaneschi Polyptych in Rome.
His other works include a Madonna in Bern, an Adoration of the Magi in Dijon, the Stories of Job (Pisa, Camposanto Monumentale), the Madonna Enthroned with Child, Angels and Saints (Florence, Uffizi Gallery), the Madonna del Parto (Florence), and the Polyptych in Santa Felicita's sacristy, Florence.
He is the father of Agnolo Gaddi.
Taddeo Gaddi’s altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with saints, executed in 1353 for the Cathedral of Pistoia, displays the complex figural detail characteristic of his mature work.
According to Giorgio Vasari, Gaddi was considered Giotto's most talented pupil: in 1347 he was placed at the top in a list of Florence's most renowned painters.