Historical Background
Taddeo di Bartolo’s imagery of Hell follows a rich tradition of Last Judgment iconography developed during the Middle Ages. While eschatological themes had long been an inspiration for artistic production in the Western world, during the late Middle Ages artists began expanding the visual language of the afterlife. They drew upon popular religious and literary sources, in so doing redefining the iconographic character of Hell. (1)
Focusing on the changing artistic styles that emerged after the Black Death in Florence and Siena, Millard Meiss, wrote “…both the Sienese and Florentines lived through a series of deeply disturbing events, which provoked in each a social, moral, and cultural crisis.” (2) Although Meiss’s arguments have been questioned, it is certainly striking that innovative changes to Last Judgment scenes emerged during the period after the Black Death in Italy. It is reasonable to suppose political instability, threat of war, and mass deaths due to the Black Plague acted as catalysts for the emerging interest and representation of Hell within art, influenced by religious guilt and fear. Artists depicting eschatological scenes, including Hell, Heaven, and the Last Judgment, studied precedents and adapted the stylistic qualities of the theme, influenced by changing societal beliefs, tastes, and norms. Circulation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (completed c. 1320) and Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica (written c. 1265-1273) also intensified interest in Last Judgment subject matter, expanding possibilities for artistic innovation, patron engagement and a more precise application of theological contexts.
Although this broader context was influential, Taddeo’s Last Judgment program was in part a response to the history of the Collegiata, and the commune of San Gimignano itself. (3) In the early life of the new Collegiata, artists were commissioned to add frescoes depicting the stories of the Old Testament. In the years following, another group of artists were then commissioned to complete the New Testament frescoes. Taddeo di Bartolo’s Last Judgment then acts as the conclusion, completing the cycle of salvation. As I argue in this capstone, the town’s misogynistic anxieties of the later Middle Ages also coincided with the inclusion of these later frescoes completed by Taddeo. Rather than simply being another Last Judgment scene created during a period of their widespread popularity, Taddeo’s Hell should instead be understood as a response to San Gimignano’s culture and specific needs.
(1) Eugene Nassar, “The Iconography of Hell: From the Florence Baptistery to the Michelangelo Fresco,” Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, no. 11 (1993): 53.
(2) Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), 8.
(3) Bruce Cole, “Some Thoughts on Orcagna and the Black Death Style,” Antichità Viva. Florence: Casa Editrice Edam, 1983. 31.