Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/206

192 descendants, who, from such beginnings,- often rise to the highest and noblest condition, as happened to those of Taddeo Gaddi, in consequence of his works.

This Taddeo, son of Gaddo Gaddi, the Florentine, was the godson of Giotto; and, after the death of his father Gaddo, was the disciple of that master, with whom he continued twenty-four years. This we are told by Cennino di Drea Cennini, a painter of Colie di Valdelsa, who further relates, that on the death of Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi was considered the first in the art, for judgment, genius, and other artistic qualities, being superior in most of these to all his fellow-disciples. The first works of Taddeo were executed with. a facility, which was received from nature, rather than acquired by art. They were performed in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence, and in the chapel of the sacristy, where, in company with others, (also disciples of the deceased Giotto), he painted stories from the Life of Santa Maria Maddalena; the figures of these works are very fine, and the vestments, after the fashion of those times, are also beautiful and curious. In the chapel of the Baroncelli and Bandini, for which Giotto had painted a picture in distemper, Taddeo executed certain frescoes, representing stories from the Life of the Virgin; these he did entirely alone, and they were considered extremely beautiful. He afterwards painted the story of Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple, over the door of the same sacristy; but this work was nearly ruined, when Cosmo de’ Medici, the elder, built the noviciate, the chapel and the parlour in front of the sacristy, a stone cornice having then been placed over the door. In the same church Taddeo Gaddi painted the chapel of the Bellacci in fresco, as also that of St. Andrew, which is near to one of the three chapels decorated by Giotto himself.