Taddeo included these punished women in his fresco for theological purposes. Their punishment was meant to act as a warning for Christians, who listened to sermons preaching the horrors of hell that awaited those who turned their back on the teachings of the church and Christ. For all their theological and erudite references, these women are still male-imagined figures, which then have tangible social repercussions for real women. (1) The lustful depictions of fictional or allegorical women created by male artists led men to then rationalize their views regarding real women as dangerous or lustful, legitimating discriminatory practices and attitudes towards women.

Traditionally, Taddeo di Bartolo’s Hell has been discussed for its comparative qualities towards other Trecento depictions of Hell. Scholars have noticed Hell’s unique preoccupation with sexual torture, unusual in comparison to other Trecento examples like Giotto’s Last Judgment in the Schrovegni Chapel and Nardo di Cione’s Hell at the Strozzi Chapel, and although sexualized imagery is present within these, it is limited and prescribed to a singular section of the image, Lust. By instead focusing singularly on Taddeo’s Hell for this capstone project, Hell’s imagery is shown to have been informed by its position in its original setting, which necessitated the examination of women’s experiences in church spaces. The fresco’s misogynistic imagery is contextualized through the understanding that women encompassed a large part of its intended viewership and it was therefore designed with didactic, explicitly gendered content. This context of female viewership aids in the argument that Taddeo’s Hell acts as a pedagogical moral message to the congregation, one that is centered around the female propensity for sin that, when combined with the verbiage spewed by preachers and priests, results in a perceived justified need to control women. Combining a discussion of viewership with an examination of the symbolic imagery within the fresco offered Taddeo’s Hell as a case study exploring late medieval Italian perceptions of women, their bodies, and their sexualities.

Inscribing his Hell with misogynistic beliefs about the female body and women’s propensity for sinful behavior, Taddeo di Bartolo synthesized the town of San Gimignano’s complicated feelings towards crime and sin, through the inclusion of images of sexual punishment and pain. Ultimately, Taddeo’s Hell is an image for the living, a foreboding caution for the future, as well as a warning against the inclination of women towards sin.

(1) Sherry Lindquist, “Confronting Power and Violence in the Renaissance Nude,” Iris Blog, Getty, December 4, 2018, http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/confronting-power-and-violence-in-the-renaissance-nude/