Skip to main content

Agnolo Gaddi

documented 1369; died 1396
Agnolo Gaddi
Image: Agnolo Gaddi 

One of the leading Florentine painters of the late 14th century, Agnolo Gaddi and his brother Giovanni were sons of the painter Taddeo Gaddi, who had been a pupil of Giotto.

Agnolo Gaddi is first recorded in Rome in 1369 acting as assistant to his brother in the Vatican. By 1376 he had returned to Florence and before 1381 he had become a member of the guild there. Most of his work, including the fresco cycle of the story of the True Cross in Santa Croce, was carried out in Florence, though Gaddi also worked from 1383 for the famous 'Merchant of Prato' (Francesco di Marco Datini), and produced frescoes in the cathedral there (1392-5). His work perpetuated his father's style into the later years of the century.

Agnolo trained Cennino Cennini, who wrote the famous 14th-century treatise on painting.