Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/15

Rh circuit of about 2 miles; one of the principal streets—a via recta, or straight street—has evidently been bordered on both sides by colonnades; and two theatres are the most noticeable of the ruined ediﬁces. The cliffs round the town are full of tombs excavated in the limestone rock, and by a curious irony of fate these chambers of the dead are the only places where a living inhabitant of Gadara is to be found. According to Josephus, Gadara was a Greek city, and it appears at least not improbable that it was a foreign settlement. The name does not occur in the Scriptures; but in the New Testament, the phrase “ the country of the Gadarenes” is used more than once, and there is no reason to doubt that the vicinity of the was the scene of the healing of the demoniacs by the Saviour, recorded in Matt. viii, Mark v., and Luke viii. Josephus informs us that Gadara was captured by Antiochus in, and, , stood a ten s’ siege by Alexander Janngeus. It was twice taken by Vespasian, though, on the ﬁrst occasion, the Jewish inhabitants offered a stout resistance. At a later period it recovered from the injuries he inﬂicted, and was one of the most beautiful and ﬂourishing cities of Syria; and it was not till after the Mahometan conquest that it fell again into decay. Its archaeon or prefecture is mentioned in the Midrash Rabba (circa ) and other Jewish writings. According to Dr 0. Blau the town was also known as the Arabian Antioch. To the literary student it is interesting as the birthplace of Meleager the anthologist.

1em  GADDI. Four painters of the early Florentine school—father, son, and two grandsons—bore this name.

1. ( to about ) was, according to Vasari, an intimate friend of Cimabue, and afterwards of Giotto. He was a painter and mosaist, is said to have executed the great mosaic inside the portal of the cathedral of Florence, representing the coronation of the Virgin, and may with more certainty be credited with the mosaics inside the portico of the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, relating to the legend of the foundation of that church; their date is probably. In the original cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, he also executed the mosaics of the choir, and those of the front, representing on a colossal scale God the Father, with many other ﬁgures ; likewise an altarpiece in the church of S. Maria Novella, Florence; these works no longer exist. It is ordinarily held that no picture (as distinct from mosaics) by Gaddo Gaddi is now extant. Messrs Crowe & Cavaleaselle, however, consider that the mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore bear so strong a resemblance in style to four of the frescos in the upper church of Assisi, representing incidents in the life of St Francis (frescos 2, 3, 4, and especially 5, which shows Francis stripping himself, and protected by the bishop), that those frescos likewise may, with considerable conﬁdence, be ascribed to Gaddi. Some other extant mosaics are attributed to him, but without full authentication. This artist laid the foundation of a very large fortune, which continued increasing, and placed his progeny in a highly distinguished worldly position.

2. (about –, or later), son of Gaddo, was born in Florence, and became one of Giotto’s most industrious assistants for a period (as usually stated) of 24 s. This can hardly be other than an exaggeration; it is probable that he began painting on his own account towards, when Giotto went to Naples. Taddeo also traded as a merchant, and had a branch establishment in Venice. He was a painter, mosaist, and architect. He executed in fresco, in the Baroncelli (now Giugni) chapel, in the Florentine church of S. Croce, the Virgin and Child between Four Prophets, ou the funeral monument at the entrance, and on the walls various incidents in the legend of the Virgin, from the Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple up to the Nativity. In the subject of the Pre- scntation of the Virgin in the Temple are the two heads traditionally accepted as portraits of Gaddo Gaddi and Andrea Taﬁ ; they cannot, at any rate, be portraits of those artists from the life. On the ceiling of the same chapel are the Eight Virtues. In the museum of Berlin is an altar- piece by Taddeo, the Virgin and Child and some other sub- jects, dated ; in the Naples Gallery, a triptych, dated , of the Virgin enthroned along with Four Saints, the Baptism of Jesus, and his Deposition from the Cross; in the sacristy of S. Pietro a Megognano. near l’oggibonsi, an altarpiece dated, the Virgin and Child enthroned amid Angels. A series of paintings, partly from the life of S. Francis, which Taddeo executed for the presses in S. Croce, are now divided between the Florentine Academy and the Berlin Museum; the compositions are taken from or founded on Giotto, to whom, indeed, the Berlin authorities have ascribed their examples. Taddeo also painted some frescos still extant in Pisa, besides many in S. Croce and other Florentine buildings, which have perished. He deservedly ranks as one of the most eminent successors of Giotto; it may be said that he continued working up the material furnished by that great painter, with comparatively feeble inspiration of his own. His ﬁgures are vehement in action, long and slender in form; his execution rapid and somewhat conventional. To Taddeo are generally ascribed the celebrated frescos—those of the ceiling and left or western wall—in the Cappella degli Spagnuoli, in the church of S. Maria Novella, Florence; this is, however, open to considerable doubt, although it may perhaps be conceded that the designs for the ceiling were furnished by Taddeo. Dubious also are the three pictures ascribed to him in the London National Gallery. As a mosaist, he has left some work in the baptistery of Florence. As an archi- tect, he supplied in the plans for the present Ponte Vecchio, and those for the original (not the present) Ponte S. Trinita ; in he was engaged on the church of Orsan- Michele; and he carried on after Giotto’s death the work of the unrivalled Campanile.

3., born in Florence, was the son of Taddeo; the date of his birth has been given as, but possibly is nearer the mark. He was a painter and mosaist, 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 October. His paintings show much early promise, hardly sustained as he advanced in life. One of the earliest, at S. Jacopo tra’ Fossi, Florence, represents the Resurrection of Lazarus. Another probably youthful per- formance is the series of frescos of the Pieve di Prato— legends of the Virgin and of her Sacred Girdle, bestowed upon St Thomas, and brought to Prato in the by Michele dei Dagomari; the Marriage of Mary is one of the best of this series, the later compositions in which have suffered much by renewals. In S. Croce he painted, in eight frescos, 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 car- rying the Cross as he enters Jerusalem; in this picture is a portrait of the painter himself. Agnolo composed his subjects better than Taddeo; he had more dignity and individuality in the ﬁgures, and was a clear and bold colourist; the general effect is laudany decorative, but the drawing is poor, and the works show best from a distance. Various other productions of this master exist, and many have perished. Cennino Cennini, the author of the celebrated treatise on painting, was one of his pupils.

4., brother of Agnolo, was also a painter of promise. He died young. 