the Baroncelli Chapel
The Baroncelli Chapel is a chapel located at the transept's end of the Basilica of Santa Croce. It has frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi executed between 1328 and 1338.The fresco cycle represents the Stories of the Virgin. In this work, Gaddi showed his mastership of Giotto's style, with a narrative disposition of the characters in the scenes, which are more crowded than his master's. He also continued to experiment the use of geometrical perspective in the architectural background, obtaining illusionistic effects in details such as the oblique staircase in the Presentation at the Temple. The two niches with still lives in the basement are perhaps inspired to Giotto's ones in the Scrovegni Chapel.Gaddi also designed the stained glasses, with four prophets on the exterior, and perhaps had a hand in the altarpiece also: this, dating to c. 1328, has the signature Opus Magistri Jocti, but the style shows the hands of assistants, including Gaddi himself. It is an elaborate polyptych, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin surrounded by a crowded Glory of Angels and Saints. The cusp of the altarpiece is now at the Timken Art Gallery of San Diego, California, United States. The original frame was replaced by a new one during the 15th century.