ese, and that of Innocent IV, both one and the other of whom
he portrayed afterwards in the pictures that he made in S. Paolo a Ripa
d' Arno in Pisa. A disciple and perhaps a son of the same man was
Antonio d'Andrea Tafi, who was a passing good painter; but I have not
been able to find any work by his hand. There is only mention made of
him in the old book of the Company of the Men of Design.

Deservedly, then, did Andrea Tafi gain much praise among the early
masters, for the reason that, although he learnt the principles of
mosaic from those whom he brought from Venice to Florence, he added
nevertheless so much of the good to the art, putting the pieces together
with much diligence and executing the work smooth as a table, which is
of the greatest importance in mosaic, that he opened the way to good
work to Giotto, among others, as will be told in his Life; and not only
to Giotto, but to all those who have exercised themselves in this sort
of painting from his day up to our own times. Wherefore it can be truly
affirmed that those marvellous works which are being made to-day in S.
Marco at Venice, and in other places, had their first beginning from
Andrea Tafi.

GADDO GADDI

LIFE OF GADDO GADDI,

PAINTER OF FLORENCE

Gaddo, painter of Florence, displayed at this same time more design in
his works, wrought after the Greek manner, than did Andrea Tafi and the
other painters that were before him, and this perchance arose from the
intimate friendship and intercourse that he held with Cimabue, seeing
that, by reason either of their conformity of blood or of the goodness
of their minds, finding themselves united one to the other by a strait
affection, from the frequent converse that they had together and from
their discoursing lovingly very often about the difficulties of the arts
there were born in their minds conceptions very beautiful and grand; and
this came to pass for them the more easily inasmuch as they were
assisted by the subtlety of the air of Florence, which is wont to
produce spirits both ingenious and subtle, removing continually from
round them that little of rust and grossness that most times nature is
not able to remove, together with the emulation and with the precepts
that the good craftsmen provide in every age. And it is seen clearly
that works concerted between those who, in their friendship, are not
veiled with the mask of duplicity (although few so made are to be
found), arrive at m