Bernardo Daddi

Bernardo Daddi ( 1280 – 1348) was an early Italian Renaissance painter and the leading painter of Florence of his generation. He was one of the artists who contributed to the revolutionary art of the Renaissance, which broke away from the conventions of the preceding generation of Gothic artists, by creating compositions which aimed to achieve a more realistic representation of reality. He was particularly successful with his small-scale works and contributed to the development of the portable altarpiece, a format that subsequently gained great popularity.

Life and work Daddi's birth date remains unknown. He is first mentioned in 1312. He may have been a pupil of Giotto.

Daddi focused on religious motifs and altarpieces. A triptych he painted in 1328 is in the Uffizi, and there are several panels in National Gallery of Art and the Walters Art Museum. The Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums houses his Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, a predella in eight panels painted about 1345. He was also influenced by the Sienese art of Lorenzetti.

Daddi's last work dates from 1347, and it is believed he died the next year.

Selected works

The Martyrdom of St Stephen (1324, unverified) Madonna and Two Saints, or Ognissanti Triptych (1328) Processional Cross (1330s), National Gallery of Victoria St. Ursula (1333) Madonna and Child (1335), Orsanmichele, Florence Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds (1336), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Four Musical Angels, part of the altarpiece The Coronation of the Virgin, Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford The Marriage of the Virgin (1336–1340) Polyptych of S. Pancrazio (1336–1340) The Assumption of the Virgin (1337–1339) Triptych: The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints (1338), Courtauld Institute of Art Triptych with Madonna and Christ Child (1339), Minneapolis Institute of Art The Coronation of the Virgin (ca. 1340–1345), National Gallery Polyptych: The Crucifixion and Saints (1348), Courtauld Institute of Art " Madonna and Christ Child With Saints, Crucifixion, Annunciation (1330's), The Frick Pittsburgh