Agnolo Gaddi

A painter of the Florentine school, Agnolo Gaddi worked at Santa Croce on several painted ensembles and on the choir stained-glass windows. In the Castellani Chapel, he painted scenes devoted to Saint Anthony, Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Nicholas; the scenes devoted to Saint Anthony could, however, be the work of Gherardo Starnina. Born around 1350 in Florence, he was also known as Agnolo di Taddeo Gaddi. He died in 1396 and was buried at Santa Croce on 16 October of that year. He was probably trained in the workshop of his father, the painter Taddeo Gaddi. A source regarded him as a master as early as 1369; at that time, he received payments for the decoration of Pope Urban V’s palace at the Vatican.

At Santa Croce, the fresco cycle devoted to the Legend of the Cross is dated between 1385 and 1390. According to Vasari, the Alberti family commissioned him to decorate it. Gaddi also worked on the basilica’s choir stained-glass windows, probably at the same time as his frescoes. He trained Cennino Cennini, author of a treatise on painting.

A sheet held in the drawings cabinet of the Sforza Castle in Milan, entitled “Five Heads of Young Men and a Lamb’s Head”, is attributed to Gaddi according to the most widely accepted hypothesis and dated to the 1380s. Executed in pen, brush and bistre on parchment, it also attests to the place of drawing in the corpus of his work.

Works recorded at auction

Koller

Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia with roses.

Tempera

Original catalogue wording

Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia with roses.
tempera

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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