Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/71

1430] have been as actively practised as it was in Florence during this period instead of dying out altogether.

As before, the chief patrons of art were the Mendicant Orders, and the centres of painting were the Franciscan church of Santa Croce and the Dominican foundation of Santa Maria Novella. The decoration of Santa Croce, begun by Giotto, was carried on by his favourite scholar and godson, Taddeo Gaddi, the son of Gaddo Gaddi, a distinguished mosaic-worker who was employed in the Baptistery and Church of San Miniato, and lived on friendly terms with his great contemporary. Born about 1300, Taddeo spent twenty-four years in Giotto's shop, and assisted his master in most of his later works. A careful and industrious artist, Taddeo followed Giotto's methods very closely, imitating his types and exaggerating his peculiarities. His best works, the frescoes of the Virgin's Life, in the Baroncelli Chapel of Santa Croce, were begun during Giotto's absence at Naples, and finished by 1338. Most of the subjects are taken from the Arena Chapel, and frequently we find that whole figures are borrowed from Giotto's compositions. The narrow eyes, long noses and faces are so much exaggerated as to become positively ugly; the drapery hangs in smaller and deeper folds; there is more variety in the costumes, and greater elaboration in the architecture and other accessories. But the want of structural form is painfully apparent in the figures, and the faces lack character and expression. In the Presentation of the Virgin, for instance, Taddeo places the high priest in a tall, many-arched loggia, elaborately decorated with reliefs and windows, but sadly out of perspective, and introduces