GADDI, giidtde. A family of Florentine paint ers. The founder was GADDO GADDI (e.1259 1332), and famous especially for his mosaic pic tures, especially the "Coronation of the Vir gin" over the door of the Cathedral of Florence, the "Assumption" in the Cathedral of Pisa, and part of the mosaics in the dome of the Florentine baptistery. He was associated with Cimabue.— His SOD, TADDEO GADDY (C.100-66) , was a pupil of his godfather, Giotto, and preeminently the most talented of his followers. His masterpiece is the "History of the Virgin," in a series of fres coes in the Baroncelli Chapel at Santa Croce, Flor ence, in which he shows true religious feeling and poetry. Two signed altarpieces by him are at Berlin (1334), at Naples (1336), and others at Megognano, near Poggibonsi. The "History of Christ" and that of Saint Francis, on the presses in the sacristy of Santa Croce, are attributed to him. In his youth he assisted Giotto in the frescoes of Saint Francis. at Assisi. As an archi tect he is reputed, mainly on Vasari's authority, to have continued Giotto's work on the Cam panile at Florence, and to have built the Ponte Vecchio. The frescoes of the Cappella degli Spagnuoli, in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novel la, are also attributed to him by Vasari. Mod
ern authorities generally discredit these attri butions. Many of his numerous works have perished.—His son, AGNOLO GADDI (1333-96). became, after his father's death. the pupil of Giovanni da Milano, and continued the artistic traditions of the family. His finest early work is the series of frescoes on the "Legend of the Virgin's Girdle" in the Cathedral of l'rato, which illustrate the lighter, more picturesque and genre like style which he affected, preparing the way for Masolino (q.v.) and other early Quatrocent ists. His ability as a decorator and composer is even better illustrated by the series of the "His tory of the Finding of the Cross" in the choir of Santa Croce at Florence, with numerous realistic details, which are further important as having inspired Piero della Francesca in his Arezzo fres coes. Consult: Vasari, Della vite dei pica eccel lenti pittori, scultori et architetti, edited by Milanesi (Florence, ; Crowe and Caval easelle, History of Painting in Italy, vol. i. (Lon don, 1864).