Marriage of the Virgin

1330 · Cappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence

religious

This scene, at bottom right on the east wall, has a festive and cheerful character. The main action is not in the foreground but rather in the middle ground within the crowd of people that surrounds the ceremony. The scene is defined in the rear by a wall, but beyond the wall a luxurious garden is suggested.

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About the Artist

Taddeo Gaddi

1300 – 1366

Florentine painter, the son of a painter and mosaicist Gaddo Gaddi. According to Cennino Cennini, Taddeo was Giotto 's godson and worked with him for twenty-four years. In 1347 he headed a list of the best living painters compiled for the purpose of choosing a master to paint a new high altarpiece for Pistoia Cathedral. His best-known works were painted for Santa Croce, Florence: notably the frescoes devoted to the Life of the Virgin in the Baroncelli Chapel (finished 1338), and the panels illustrating the Life of Christ (c. 1330), originally meant for the doors of a sacristy cupboard and now scattered among museums in Florence (Accademia), Munich (Alte Pinakothek), and Berlin (Staatliche Museen). Many other panels are attributed to him and he must have had a flourishing workshop. Although transmitting the tradition of Giotto, his style is less heroic and more anecdotal. Gaddi's son Agnolo (active 1369-96) continued the Giotto tradition but modified it still further in the direction of decorative elegance.

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