Un problème de taille. À propos du format original du retable de Taddeo Gaddi pour la Compagnia di Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio
Cyprien Fuchs
This paper focuses on the panel housed in the Museo Bandini in Fiesole depicting an Annunciation attributed to the Florentine painter Taddeo Gaddi. It was initially part of an altarpiece for the Compagnia di Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio, a confraternity founded in Florence in 1343 specialized in the care of those sentenced to death, who possessed a church on the Borgo la Croce until its destruction at the end of the 18th century. Although the panel can be traced back to the main altar of this church, it isn’t the original location for which it was commissioned. A thorough examination of the preserved sources, modern descriptions, and physical traces related to the establishment of the Compagnia di Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio in Florence and the various spaces it occupied – with special attention to their size – provides new insights into the reconstitution of Taddeo Gaddi’s Annunciation altarpiece.