vour with all
industry, not only to learn, but to excel, to raise themselves to a
useful and honourable rank, from which flow honour to their country,
glory to themselves, and riches and nobility to their descendants,
who, being brought up on such principles, often become very rich and
noble, as did the descendants of Taddeo Gaddi the painter, by means
of his works. This Taddeo di Gaddo Gaddi of Florence, after the death
of Gaddo, had been the pupil of his godfather Giotto for twenty-four
years, as Cennino di Drea Ceninni, painter of Colle di Valdelsa
writes. On the death of Giotto he became the first painter of the
day, by reason of his judgment and genius, surpassing his
fellow-pupils. His first works, executed with a facility due to
natural ability rather than to acquired skill, were in the church of
S. Croce at Florence in the chapel of the sacristy, where, in
conjunction with his fellow-pupils of the dead Giotto, he did some
fine scenes from the life of St Mary Magdalene, the figures and
draperies being very remarkable, the costumes being those then worn.
In the chapel of the Baroncelli and Bandini, where Giotto had already
done a picture in tempera, Taddeo did some scenes from the life of
the Virgin in fresco on the wall, which were considered very
beautiful. Over the door of the same sacristy he painted the scene of
Christ disputing with the doctors in the temple, which was afterwards
destroyed when Cosimo de' Medici the elder built the noviciate, the
chapel and the vestibule of the sacristy, in order to put a stone
cornice above that door. In the same church he painted in fresco the
chapel of the Bellacci and that of St Andrew, next to one of the
three done by Giotto, in which he represented Christ calling Andrew
and Peter from their nets, and the crucifixion of the latter apostle
with such truth that it was much admired and praised when it was
completed, and is still held in esteem at the present day. Over the
side door and under the tomb of Carlo Marsupini of Arezzo, he made a
dead Christ with Mary, in fresco, which was much admired. Below the
screen of the church, on the left hand above the crucifix of Donato,
he painted in fresco a miracle of St Francis, where he raises a boy
killed by a fall from a terrace, with an apparition in the air. In
this scene he drew the portraits of his master Giotto, the poet
Dante, Guido Cavalcanti, and some say of himself. In different places
in the same church he made a number