Giotto was an architect and sculptor as well, and in 1334 he was charged with the building of the Campanile at Florence. It appears certain that he prepared the plans for the architectural part of this edifice, as well as the drawings for all the sculptures executed by Andrea Pisano. His plan was not carried out in its entirety, for he had designed a pyramid similar to that which surmounts the Campanile of St. Mark's, but this, as already mentioned, was omitted by his pupil Taddeo Gaddi, who assumed the direction of the works after his death.

His pupils, in addition to Taddeo, were Puccio Capana Fiorentino, Ottaviano da Faenza, Pace da Faenza, Guglielino da Forli, Stefano Fiorentino, and Pietro Cavalini, and some mention must be made of them, as they were the stem from which issued the branches of the tree of art. TADDEO GADDI was the son of one of those early artists who were associated with Andrea Taffi upon the mosaics of the cupola of San Giovanni, and his father, GADDO GADDI, was also a contemporary of Jacopo da Turrita, and worked with him at Rome. From his father's studio Taddeo went to that of Giotto, his godfather, and it was to this change that he owed the prominent place which he occupied in the world of art. He had a quick eye for decorative effects, and with a good deal of skill in outline, his pictures are, as a rule, remarkable for their suavity. The Baroncelli Chapel at Santa Croce contains several frescoes from the " Life of the Virgin." At Santa Felicita there is a very graceful Madonna, and in the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria Novella a grand allegorical composition representing the "Apotheosis of St. Thomas," surrounded by prophets and evangelists, and trampling Heresy under foot. This fresco also comprises fourteen figures representing the Sciences and Virtues, and at the foot of each is seated a personage who may be regarded as the incarnation of that particular gift. Thus, for instance, Cicero is at the feet of Rhetoric, and Euclid at those of Geometry. The Sacristy Chapel of Santa Croce also contains an altar-piece of the Madonna surrounded by saints, the work. of this artist.

Taddeo Gaddi was an architect as well, and reconstructed the Loggia of Or San Michele, after the designs of Arnolfo di Cambio, while a still more important work was the Ponte Vecchio, with its row of shops, which brought in such a handsome income to the town. It has been noticed that the strongest floods have never affected the solidity of this bridge, and it is strange that a painter such as Taddeo should have been so well versed in what we should call civil engineering; though, as a matter of fact, the Communal Council employed him on many important works of a similar kind. He widened the quays, repaired the fortifications, and rebuilt the Ponte Santa Trinita (again destroyed in 1557), and was so busy that he had to take Simone Memmi to assist him. He also completed the Campanile, begun by his master Giotto, and, as I have several times mentioned before, modified the original design.

Taddeo Gaddi had two sons, Agnolo and Giovanni; his remains are interred at Santa Croce, in the first cloister, and in the same tomb as that erected by him for his father, the epitaph upon it reading :

Hoc uno dici poterat Florentia felix Vivente; at certa est non potuisse mori.

Giottino was the surname given to Tommaso Stefano, whose father, a painter of some merit, was a contemporary of Giotto. The well-deserved surname does not indicate much originality on the part of this artist, who, however, exercised no little influence ; and it is astonishing, considering that he died at the early age of two-and-thirty, that he should have left so many works behind him. The best known of them all is the composition relating to the life of St. Silvester, in the Bardi Chapel at Santa Croce. The saint is represented in the act of exorcising a dragon whose breath is poisonous, and a monk who is present is pressing his hand to his nose with a very lifelike expression. Filippo Lippi showed his appreciation of this work by borrowing some of the features in it for his frescoes at Santa Maria Novella.

There are frescoes by him in the Cappella Strozzi in the crypt of Santa Maria, Novella, and a Pieta at present in the Uffizi is probably by the same hand.

When still very young he was intrusted with a singular task by the Signoria. The Duke of Athens had just been expelled, and in order to stigmatize his memory it was determined to portray on the walls of the Palace of the Podestas (now called the Bargello) the Duke and his companions, with the mitres of justice on their heads, surrounded by the animals which were emblematic of his appetites and vices. Nothing remains of this work, nor is there anything to give all idea of the portraits of the Pazzi conspirators, who, after being hung by the feet, were painted on these same walls a hundred years later. A curious feature of these paintings was that the scutcheon of the family was given under the effigy of each person.

Many of the works executed by Giottino at Florence have disappeared, but there is a composition said to be by him in St. John Lateran at Rome, in which the Pope appears; a group of celebrated personages at the Orsini Palace ; and a fine portrait of St. Louis to the right of the high altar at Ara Coeli. He also left his mark upon, the Lower Church at Assisi.

Taddeo Agnolo Gaddi left two sons, AGNOLO and GIOVANNI. The first commenced his career as an artist at San Jacopo extra muros at Florence, where he painted the "Resurrection of Lazarus," in what would now be termed "realistic" fashion. The body is represented as quite putrefied, and the expressions of the spectators are supposed to be in keeping with the horror which they feel. It may be remarked in this connection that the naturalists of the present day have never gone so far as the early painters, who have only been outdone in this respect by the Spaniards of the seventeenth century, and these latter such as Ribeira and Valdes Leal had a skill and power which did much to mitigate the repulsiveness of their delineations.

Another important work of Agnolo was the "Life of St. Cecilia" in the Carmine Church; and he painted for the Alberti family, in the choir of Santa Croce, the "History of the True Cross."

Like his father, he was a skilful architect, and was employed to repair and enlarge the Bargello, after the fire of 1330. He went on with his paintings at the same time, executing several works now preserved in the Uffizi and Academia. He also painted some frescoes in the cathedral at Prato, and a Madonna and saints in Santo Spirito in Florence is attributed to him. He is described as having only painted when the fancy took him, as he was rich enough to be independent; and his sons, who had no taste, for art, went into trade, and made a large fortune at Venice. Their father died at Florence, aged sixty-three.

Another early painter of whom little is known, though he played a very prominent part at Florence, was Buffalmaco. His surname or Christian name, which of the two it is difficult to say was Buonamico, and this pupil of Andrea Taffi was a very jovial and humorous character, and was probably the originator of the studio jokes for which painters have ever been noted. Boccaccio and Sacchetti have made him famous, and he is better known for his adventures than for his works. Some of the latter, however, are to be found in the museums of Florence, and there are frescoes by him at the Certosa near Florence at the Badia, where he represented the "Passion in the Giochi and Bastari Chapel; and at the Ognissanti, where he painted the " Nativity of Christ and the "Adoration of the Magi." At Arezzo he was employed by Bishop Guido to decorate the baptismal chapel of the cathedral. Vasari has drawn a very fascinating portrait of Buffalmaco, who appears to have been something of a poet, and to have written very sprightly notices of his own works.

His stay at Arezzo was followed by a journey to Pisa, where, among other compositions, he painted the History of the World, from the Creation to the Building of the Ark. All round this composition was a frieze, with the portraits of different personages, himself included. He wrote a sonnet descriptive of this work, and Vasari, in his lengthy biography of him, describes him as prodigal in his style of living, and as dying so poor, at the age of sixty-eight, that he was buried in the paupers' grave in the cloisters of the hospital, 1340.

Taddeo Gaddi left a pupil, Venetian by birth but Florentine by adoption, named ANTONIO VENEZIANO I whose earliest works, in the Grand Council Room at Venice, have been destroyed by fire. He, seems to have been rather badly used in his native country, and to have excited the jealousy of foreign painters, so he returned to Florence, where he was very well received. He did paintings at Santo Spirito, San Stefano al Ponte Vecchio, and he was afterwards employed by the committee of the Campo Santo at Pisa upon the frescoes illustrating episodes in the life of San Ranieri, the patron of the city. This was the greatest work which he executed, and it won him a high place in the esteem of the people of Pisa.

From Pisa he returned to Florence, and painted a series of religious scenes in a tabernacle in the grounds of Nuovoli, just outside the Porta al Prato. Thence he went to the Certosa, where the Acciaiuoli family employed him to decorate the chapel in which their ancestors were buried ; but this is one of the many works which have been effaced by the hand of time. Veneziano later in life gave up painting for botany. He died somewhere about 1387.