Four-sided lobed medallion of crucifixion from the sacristy of Santa Croce

Taddeo Gaddi's four-sided lobed medallion depicting the Crucifixion, created around 1335 for the sacristy of Santa Croce in Florence and now in the Galleria dell'Accademia, is an unusual devotional object that reflects the inventive formats used for private and semi-private worship in Franciscan settings. As Giotto's most faithful pupil and longtime workshop assistant, Taddeo Gaddi carried forward the master's spatial and narrative innovations while developing his own sensitivity to light and color. Santa Croce was the principal Franciscan church in Florence, and its sacristy furnishings served the friars' daily devotional practices.

Painted in tempera and gold on a shaped wooden panel with a distinctive four-lobed format, the work adapts the Crucifixion composition to its unusual curvilinear frame. Taddeo's Giottesque figural style features solid volumetric forms with careful chiaroscuro modeling, set against a gold ground with finely tooled decorative borders.