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1328-30 Fresco Cappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence Taddeo Gaddi, one of Giotto's pupils painted the Baroncelli Chapel in the church of Santa Croce in Florence around 1328, brilliantly employing the technical achievements of his teacher. His scenes for the Life of the Virgin were painted with two goals in mind. First, to compose the painting so that it corresponded to the form of the chapel bay, which was arched. Second, by means of the architecture of the painting itself, to create a sufficiently deep stage for the sequence of events to be played out. Gaddi came up with an ingenious solution for the upper section directly under the arch. He placed the architecture of the temple directly beside a cliff which looms up on the right so that in the the upper section a quatrefoil shape is created, an open space out of which he let an angel descend. This served to link the scenes Joachim Driven from the Temple and the Annunciation to Joachim. The sections below, with their alternating interiors and exteriors, appear as sets in front of which, and in which, the events take place. From the Meeting at the Golden Gate (top left) we move on to the Birth of St John the Baptist, the Virgin on her Way to the Temple, and finally the Betrothal to Joseph. As in San Francesco in Assisi, the architecture of the painting is closely linked to the architecture of the church, the continuous narrative to the way a viewer reads. Artist:GADDI, Taddeo Title: Life of the Virgin, 1301-1350, Italian , painting , religious |
