Taddeo Gaddi

Taddeo Gaddi, son of Gaddo, was born in Florence and was a pupil of Giotto and one of he's majors collaborators. His style is typically giottesque. Gaddi has a simple but at the same time carefully studied composition, with its coherent conception. Gaddi has succeeded in recreating the tri-dimensionality, weight and forms of the figures as well as the expressiveness of their faces.
The painting bellow is one example of Gaddi's great work. The angel on the left seems to be moving toward something outside the panel. Bellow we can see a sheep and a stick which may be a shepherd's crook, suggesting that the scene continues to the left with the episode of the Annunciation to the Shepherds. One characteristic of the school of Giotto is the use of groups of standing figures in the compositions. In "The Nativity" the tow women in the right form a conical shape and together with tower behind closes the composition and provides a vertical counterbalance to the pronounced horizontality of the rest of the scene.


The Nativity - Taddeo Gaddi