Agnolo Gaddi

Agnolo Gaddi (c.1350–1396) was an Italian painter. He was born and died in Florence, and was the son of the painter Taddeo Gaddi, who was himself the major pupil of the Florentine master Giotto. Agnolo was a painter and mosaicist, trained by his father, and a merchant as well; in middle age he settled down to commercial life in Venice, and he added greatly to the family wealth. He died in Florence in October 1396. Agnolo was an influential and prolific artist who was the last major Florentine painter stylistically descended from Giotto. His paintings show much early promise, although Rossetti (1911) suggests his abilities did not progress as he advanced in life. One of the earliest works, at San Jacopo tra i Fossi, Florence, represents the "Resurrection of Lazarus." Another probably youthful performance is the series of frescoes of the Prato Cathedral—legends of the Virgin and of her Sacred Girdle; the "Marriage of Mary" is one of the best of this series, the later compositions in which have suffered much by renewals. In Santa Croce, Florence he painted, in eight frescoes, the legend of the Cross, beginning with the archangel Michael giving Seth a branch from the Tree of Knowledge, and ending with the emperor Heraclius carrying the Cross as he enters Jerusalem; in this picture is a portrait of the painter himself. Among his pupils was the author of an art treatise, Cennino Cennini, who mentions him in the book. Giorgio Vasari included a biography of Agnolo Gaddi in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.