In the last chapel of the south transept, there are two curious
frescoes apparently of the beginning of the fourteenth century, in
honour of St. Michael; they represent his leading the Angelic hosts
against the forces of Lucifer, and the legend of his apparition at
Monte Gargano. The frescoes in the chapel at the end of the transept,
the Baroncelli chapel, representing scenes in the life of the Blessed
Virgin, are by Giotto's pupil, Taddeo Gaddi; they are similar to his
work at Assisi. The Assumption opposite was painted by Sebastiano
Mainardi from a cartoon by Domenico Ghirlandaio. In the Chapel of the
Blessed Sacrament there are more frescoed lives of saints by Taddeo's
son, Agnolo Gaddi, less admirable than his work in the choir; and
statues of two Franciscans, of the Della Robbia school. The monument
of the Countess of Albany may interest English admirers of the
Stuarts, but hardly concerns the story of Florence.
From the right transept a corridor leads off to the chapel of the
Noviciate and the Sacristy. The former, built by Michelozzo for
Cosimo, contains some beautiful terracotta work of the school of the
Della Robbia, a tabernacle by Mino da Fiesole, and a Coronation of the
Blessed Virgin ascribed to Giotto. This Coronation was originally the
altar piece of the Baroncelli chapel, and is an excellent picture,
although its authenticity is not above suspicion; the signature is
almost certainly a forgery; this title of _Magister_ was Giotto's pet
aversion, as we know from Boccaccio, and he never used it. Opening out
of the Sacristy is a chapel, decorated with beautiful frescoes of the
life of the Blessed Virgin and St. Mary Magdalene, now held to be the
work of Taddeo Gaddi's Lombard pupil, Giovanni da Milano. There is, as
has already been said, very little individuality in the work of
Giotto's followers, but these frescoes are among the best of their
kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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