|
This painting and the small Berlin triptych of 1353 are the only signed and dated works by Taddeo Gaddi that have survived, works that are therefore highly important for establishing a point of reference for this master's late style. The figures of St Mary Magdalen and St Catherine are seen standing on each side of the Virgin. The coat of arms of the Segni family appears on the base of the throne.
Taddeo Gaddi worked with Giotto for twenty six years. He was responsible for popularising the master's style and laid the foundations on which the painting of the second half of the fourteenth century was built.
Like other contemporary artists, Gaddi attempted to fuse the two great cultural sources represented by Giotto and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; the result is a nobly oratorical style, with little emphasis on the narrative dimension, and a dissolving of Giottesque drama into a dignified yet academic oratory. A serene monumentality pervades the entire composition.
The work is highly important for our understanding of Taddeo Gaddi's late style for it seems to reflect a period of uncertainty, perhaps of crisis, towards Giottesque models.
| 
