Retrieval and Trial of the Three Crosses

1385 · Chancel Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence

religious

After Emperor Constantine's victory over his rival Maxentius, Constantine's mother, Helena, heads to Jerusalem in order to seek the True Cross. The location where it has been hidden can be learned only with the compelled assistance of a Jew named Judas. As the Cross is unearthed, the crosses of the two thieves are also discovered.

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Retrieval and Trial of the Three Crosses

About the Artist

Agnolo Gaddi

1350 – 1396

Florentine painter, the son of Taddeo Gaddi. He continued the Giotto tradition but modified it still further in the direction of decorative elegance. He is particularly notable for his cool pale colours, which infiuenced the refined late Gothic art of artists of the next generation such as Lorenzo Monaco. Agnolo's works include frescos on The Story of the Cross in the chancel of Sta Croce (after 1374) and on The Story of the Virgin and her Girdle in the Chapel of the Holy Girdle in Prato Cathedral (1392-5). Many panel paintings also are attributed to Agnolo.

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