We should now return to the pupils of Giotto. The third alluded to Taddeo Gaddi; he was Giotto’s favourite scholar, as well as his godson. His pictures are considered to be the most important works of the fourteenth century. They resemble the manner of Giotto in the feeling for truth, nature, and simplicity; however, we also find improved execution in them, exhibiting even more beauty, largeness, and grandeur of style.
His pictures are numerous, several are in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, one can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the National Gallery in London, are two large panels which probably formed the two wings of a central piece (an “Enthroned Madonna,” or a “Coronation of the Virgin”), filled with figures of saints who appear to be in attendance of some grand ceremony or important personage, all the heads are finely distinguished in character. Also, an altarpiece dedicated to John the Baptist, which represents the baptism of Christ with subjects from the history of St. John below. These are just a few examples of the style of Taddeo’s work which are worthy of study.
There are four small pictures which he painted to be found in the Louvre, and four grander ones in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Between Taddeo Gaddi and Simone Martini there existed an ardent friendship and a mutual admiration, which did honour to both. He was, like many of the old painters, a skilful architect and built the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence, which is still standing and famous for the goldsmiths’ shops which line it on either side. After Giotto, there was no name more celebrated in his time than that of Taddeo Gaddi.
Gaddi died in 1366, leaving behind two sons, Agnolo and Giovanni, who were also both painters. Another of Giotto’s most famous followers was Tommaso di Stefano (aka Maso di Banco), nicknamed Giottino, or “the little Giotto”, for the success with which he emulated his master. He was of a thoughtful, rather melancholy temperament and seems to have focused all the tenderness of his nature into a small picture of the dead Christ lamented by his mother, the other Maries, and Nicodemus, which exists in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.