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In the centre the Mary with Child on an ornamented throne, on the left the birth of Jesus, on the left the crucifixion, while above the side panels the annuciation can be seen. The triptych is a small home altarpiece but the style has fresco-like monumentality, showing the influence of Giotto, the master of Daddi.
As a Florentine painter Daddi was undoubtedly influenced by Giotto. His figures therefore have a monumentality and dignity worthy of that master, but Daddi was also aware of contemporary Sienese painting, especially the works of Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, which invested his style with a lyricism and an incandescent sense of colour that give his smaller panels a remarkable intensity. The artist is seen at his best in works on this compact scale, especially in the portable triptychs of which several examples have survived. It is now recognised that these works introduced what has been called 'the miniaturist tendency' into Florentine painting, a style that prevailed until just after the middle of the century with the emergence of Andrea Orcagna. Daddi, therefore, holds a position of singular importance in the development of Florentine art.
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