• Author: Bernardo Daddi
• Date: 1340 - 1345
• Collection: PAINTING
• Technique: Tempera on panel
• Dimensions: 350 x 275 cm
• Inventory: Inv. 1890 n.442

Bernardo Daddi was one of Giotto’s most brilliant and active students. His date of birth is unknown, but we know, through his numerous works and the documents relative to his activity, that he was already an established painter in 1320. He died prematurely in 1348, leaving behind a flourishing workshop and a series of important masterpieces. One of them is the painted Cross at the Galleria dell’Accademia, painted between 1340 and 1345 for the Florentine monastery of San Donato in Polverosa. The work came to the Gallerie degli Uffizi in the second half of the 19th century following the suppression of the religious institutions and has been displayed at the Galleria dell’Accademia since 1919.

The bereaved are portrayed on either side of Christ, while the trilobes at the four ends of the cross depict as many scenes: the Last Judgement, with angels dividing the souls, the symbols of the Passion and Christ Triumphant in a mandorla; the Mocking of Christ; the Flagellation of Christ and the Way to Calvary. The finest technical details of the work include Christ’s halo, made of gilded pastiglia and using a piece of twine to lend naturalism to the relief decoration depicting grape leaves and shoots. The work was restored in the late 1980s.