In the didactic-moralising plan of the cycles of frescoes of the Monumental Cemetery, the addition of the biblical events of the prophet Job takes up and expands the theme of the proper use of suffering as an instrument of salvation. That trying to escape pain instead of patiently enduring it should be regarded as a dangerous sin had already been announced by the Triumph of Death, where the souls of beggars, cripples and lepers fall into the devils’ clutches just because they invoke death as "the true medicine of the last supper”, as the attendant scroll reads, with a clearly blasphemous hint at the Eucharistic sacrifice.
And Job is actually an exemplum, a forerunner of Christ, of the way misfortunes must be endured when they strike a just man: by carrying, like Christ, the cross of one’s tribulations.
Because of its pictorial quality, for a long time the cycle had been attributed to Giotto, even if the 15th-century sources stated that it had been painted by Taddeo Gaddi, who was after all one of his most illustrious pupils. Actually, here Taddeo seems to owe a lot to Giotto’s manner, especially that of his last Florentine period: he complicates the chromatic choices and narrative inventions of his master, focussing his attention on framing the scenes within architectural backgrounds and landscapes, often laid out as extremely long fields. Such bravura in painting city buildings and scenes had already been documented by one of his contemporaries, the chronicler Giovanni Villani, who compared Taddeo with the Greek architect Dinocrates.
List of scenes
22 Job as a rich almoner, Taddeo Gaddi Francesco da Volterra
23 Satan’s deal with God – The first misfortunes of Job, Taddeo Gaddi
24 The resignation of Job, Taddeo Gaddi
25 More misfortunes of Job, Taddeo Gaddi
26 The patience of Job, Taddeo Gaddi
27 Job recovers the assets, Taddeo Gaddi
© 2004-2007 Opera della Primaziale Pisana - credits & copyright
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