Bernardo Daddi

Florentine, active by 1320, died probably 1348

Explore Selected Works

A woman cradling a baby boy sits on an arched throne, which is surrounded by twenty men, women, and winged angels against a glimmering gold background in this vertical painting. The panel on which it is painted comes to a pointed arch at the top, and a gold, carved, twisting column frames the scene to each side. Most the people have pale skin faintly tinged with green and all have bright gold, plate-like halos. The woman, Mary, wears a forest-green, gold-edged robe covering her head, shoulders, and body over a peach-colored dress, which is decorated with gold, geometric designs. She has wavy, strawberry-blond hair, a straight nose, wide, narrowed eyes, and her pink lips are closed. Her body faces us but she looks down and to our right, toward a pair of women on that side of the throne. The baby looks in the same direction, and has short, blond, curly hair, pudgy cheeks, a wide, bare chest, and scrawny arms. The fabric wrapped around his waist and legs shimmers from canary yellow to sky blue, and is crimson red on the underside. He reaches one arm across his body to our right, toward a small gray bird held by one of two women standing next to the throne. Those women and the others around the throne are smaller in scale than Mary. Their bodies face the throne, and most look up toward it. They all wear gold-trimmed robes in ultramarine blue, ruby red, emerald green, pale pink, fawn brown, ivory white, or golden yellow. Each person holds one object, including a palm frond, flute, ring, ointment jar, wooden cross, sword, lamb, or a book. One man, to our lower left, wears a furry garment under his robe and holds a red cross and a scroll. Another man, to our right, holds a book and a large, gold skeleton key. Even smaller in scale, two winged angels play instruments in the lower center, at the base of the throne. Finally, to each side of the throne, over the saints surrounding it, there are two pairs of two angels. In each of that final pair of angels, one is painted entirely in cobalt blue and the other entirely in scarlet red. Crimson-red fabric embellished with gold, stylized leaf patterns hangs behind Mary, on the throne.
Bernardo Daddi, Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels, c. 1345, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.61

Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels

Bernardo Daddi · c. 1345 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.61

Against a shiny gold background, a man with peach-colored skin nearly fills this tall, narrow, vertical panel above a row of twelve people, significantly smaller in scale, kneeling by his feet and looking up at the man, their hands together in prayer. The top of the panel comes to a point above the man’s head. His body faces us, and he looks at us with brown eyes under furrowed, dark eyebrows. His nose is long and straight, and his mouth is small with a rosy lower lip. He has a brown, trimmed beard, and his hair is receding. He holds up a gold-handled sword with a slate-gray blade in his right hand, on our left, while in his other hand, he cradles a thick black book with a gold-edged pages against his chest. The man wears a floor-length, celery-green tunic with a flowing, rose-pink robe over his left shoulder, on our right, and around his body. The robe is lined with tangerine orange and has a faint, patterned border. The toes of his sandaled feet stick out. On a smaller scale, along the bottom of the painting, six pairs of people kneel facing the center, three couples to each side. Eleven of the people gaze with heads tipped back, up at the man with their hands folded in prayer. To our right, one woman turns and gestures, mouth open, to her neighbor. Their long robes are painted in shades of shell pink, indigo blue, scarlet red, butter yellow, sage green, and chestnut brown. Some wear white fabric over their hair while others are bareheaded. The gold background is incised around the man’s head to create a halo. Molding and a band of alternating strips of slate blue and brick red enclose the pointed panel. Three shapes, like small banners, are painted in red with gold lettering around the man’s head, with an “S” at the top center, “PAU” over his shoulder to our left, and “LUS” to our right. In the blue and red band set into the frame at the lower center, an inscription reads, “NI.MCCCXXXIII M II.ESPLETUM FUIT HC OPUS.” There is a noticeable network of cracks across the painting’s surface, especially on the gold background behind the man.
Bernardo Daddi, Saint Paul and a Group of Worshippers, 1333, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.3

Saint Paul and a Group of Worshippers

Bernardo Daddi · 1333 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.3

A man hangs on a cross flanked by small groups of people against a shiny gold background in this vertical panel painting. The people all have pale skin tinged with gray. The man on the cross, Jesus, has long blond hair and a beard, and he wears only a translucent white cloth wrapped around his hips. Blood trickles from nails driven through his hands and one driven through both feet. Blood also spurts from a wound over his right ribs. A halo surrounds his head, which hangs down, eyes closed. The wood cross is about twice as tall as the people standing around it, and a panel at the top has the letters “ICXC” written in gold. A woman with long, unbound blond hair and wearing a vibrant red cloak wraps her arms around the foot of the cross. That woman and four people in the group of five to our left also have halos. There, two people support a woman who has swooned between them. That woman wears a black cloak, and her supporters cry, their brows furrowed and eyes squinted. Two people behind this group, one of whom has a halo, look up at Jesus. To our right, three bearded men also look at the cross. The man closest to us wears a white hood and a canary-yellow cloak over a moss-green robe. He holds both hands up high. A man behind him wears a helmet and a red cloak over sky-blue armor, and we only see the lined face of the third man, who has a white beard and hair. Three angels catch the blood trickling from Jesus’s two hands and the wound on his side in shallow gold cups. Each angel has blond hair, wears a topaz blue, long-sleeved garment, and has two pairs of wings – one coming from their backs and another crossing in front of their torsos. The cross stands on a low mound on a rocky ground. A small human skull is tucked into an opening below the mound. The bright gold background is punched with lines to create an inner border behind the scene, and the panel is framed with gold molding.
Bernardo Daddi, The Crucifixion, c. 1320/1325, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.2

The Crucifixion

Bernardo Daddi · c. 1320/1325 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.2

Bibliography

1907

  • Vitzthum, Georg Graf. “Daddi, Bernardo.” In Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Edited by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 8:253-254.

1951

  • Toesca, Pietro. Il Trecento. Storia dell’arte italiana, 2. Turin, 1951: 622-625.

1958

  • Offner, Richard. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. Sec. III, Vol. VIII: Workshop of Bernardo Daddi. New York, 1958.

1959

  • Longhi, Roberto. “Qualità e industria in Taddeo Gaddi ed altri.” Paragone 10, no. 111 (1959): 3-12.

1963

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 51–58.

1972

  • Hueck, Irene. “Le matricole dei pittori fiorentini prima e dopo il 1320.” Bollettino d’arte 57 (1972): 114-121.

1984

  • Boskovits, Miklós. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. Sec. III, Vol. IX: The Miniaturist Tendency. Florence, 1984: 337-338, 354-355.

1989

  • Offner, Richard, Miklós Boskovits, and Enrica Neri Lusanna. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. Sec. III, Vol. III: The Works of Bernardo Daddi. 2nd ed. Florence, 1989.

1991

  • Offner, Richard, and Miklós Boskovits. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. Sec. III, Vol. IV: Bernardo Daddi, His Shop and Following. 2nd ed. Florence, 1991.

1992

  • Labriola, Ada. “Daddi, Bernardo.” In Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker Edited by Günther Meissner. 83+ vols, Munich and Leipzig, 1983+: 23(1999):355-357.

1997

  • Fornari Schianchi, Lucia, ed. Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Vol. 1, Catalogo delle opere dall’antico al Cinquecento. Milan, 1997: 41-43.

2001

  • Offner, Richard, Miklós Boskovits, Ada Labriola, and Martina Ingendaay Rodio. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. Sec. III, Vol. V: Master of San Martino alla Palma; Assistant of Daddi; Master of the Fabriano Altarpiece. 2nd ed. Florence, 2001.

2016

  • Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 56-57.