Overview of Taddeo’s Last Judgement – Medieval Misogyny in Taddeo di Bartolo’s Hell

Overview of Taddeo’s Last Judgment Program

Paradise & Christ as Judge

Taddeo di Bartolo’s (c. 1363-1422) late fourteenth century Last Judgment fresco program is one example of a Collegiata commission produced during this period of redefinition and development. The Sienese artist’s fresco cycle concluded the previous Old and New Testament fresco commissions (created early fourteenth century), bringing the cycle of salvation to its natural conclusion. (1)

During a construction project undertaken around 1239, the town of San Gimignano decided to reverse the orientation of the pre-existing church. (2) The old church’s apsidal wall became the new Collegiata’s facade. Created 1410-1420, after the reorientation of the church, Taddeo’s Last Judgment program consists of three large murals located on the upper nave walls above the arcade of the central vessel [fig. 4]. Upon entering the Collegiata, and whilst facing the altar, Paradise is on the right upper nave walls of the central vessel and Hell is on the left, where women typically sat during the full congregation.

On the right side of the central nave, the Virgin Mary and Jesus preside over Paradise [fig. 2]. Running parallel to the Old Testament frescoes, the Virgin and Christ sit enthroned within a circular ray nimbus, and below them winged angels serenade the celestial space with instruments. The angels provide the separation between the divine Christ and Mary and the terrestrial blessed, who line the bottom of the frescoes in neat, orderly rows. To the right of Paradise is a fresco depicting Christ as Judge above seated apostles [fig. 3]. Christ is represented seated in a ring of rainbows and surrounded by winged seraphs. Each apostle is labeled with a titulus in the vernacular underneath their feet. (3) Above them, angels carry the instruments used in Christ’s passion, the arma Christi. (4) The armed angels and named prophets Elijah and Enoch surround the enthroned Christ, whose position at the upper center of the reverse-facade completes the typological and genealogical connections between the Old and New Testament.

Hell

[Fig. 5] Taddeo di Bartolo, Hell, fresco, ca. 1410-1420, S. Maria Assunta, Collegiata, San Gimignano.

Hell is located on the left side of the central vessel, when viewed from the main entrance, and is complete with a laboring Satan and a myriad of demons torturing and punishing sinners [fig. 5]. Hell is sectioned into multiple compartments corresponding to the seven cardinal sins and labeled as thus: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, and avarice. The labels for the two lower-most sections are now illegible, although they can be presumed to have read “sloth” and “anger.” (5) Theological and social anxieties surrounding female sexuality are present in the fresco, visualized through visceral punishments directed towards women’s bodies. For example, in Sloth a woman endeavors to protect herself as a demon grabs her hair and hooks his fingers into her mouth in a show of dominance. This emphasis on the deliberate torture of women’s bodies is the subject of this capstone, as it has not been extensively highlighted in previous scholarship.

Taddeo placed Satan at the center of the top register, with “pride” and “envy” on his left and right side, respectively. Below that, in the middle register, lie “gluttony,” “greed,” and “lust.” Notably, Taddeo placed “lust” closer to the center of hell, near Satan. In doing so, Taddeo denoted “lust” as a greater sin than it was ranked in Dante’s Inferno. (6) Taddeo assigned labels to various figures, such as “Ruffiano (pimp),” “Adulteress,” and “Sodomite.” The labeling of figures in Hell separates and categorizes sinners, emphasizing their sinful acts and nature. Designation by titulus ensures there is no mistaking the punished sin and transgression on the part of the literate people of the congregation, whose literacy would confer power and influence.

Taddeo di Bartolo’s Hell fresco at the Collegiata of San Gimignano exemplifies medieval eschatological thought, consistent with the historical rise in Last Judgment scenes that were popular during the late Middle Ages. However, it differs from contemporary images due to its focus on female sexuality and the abundance of sexualized torture motifs present within the imagery.

Much of the scholarship analyzing Taddeo di Bartolo’s Hell fresco has situated it in comparison to precedents completed in Italy the century before. Citing compositional, motif, and formal similarities, scholars have noted the influences of the Last Judgment at Camposanto (Pisa, c. 1340s), Giotto’s Last Judgment at the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, c. 1306), and Nardo di Cione’s Hell detail of the Last Judgment at the Strozzi Chapel (Florence, c. 1354-57). Taddeo’s Hell does share important similarities with these three precedents, such as the inclusion of a monstrous, gestating Satan. However, unlike in these examples where sexual imagery is restricted to certain areas, Taddeo did not limit the representation of sexualized punishment to the compartment containing “lust,” nor to those whose sin was expressly sexual in nature. Moreover, the bodies at the Collegiata’s Hell are swollen and distended in a way that is not present in precedents. This display of disgusting and marked nakedness makes obvious the sinfulness of the figure: the corrupted soul expressed through the disfigured body. (7)

This capstone analyzes the unprecedented emphasis on the sexual torture of female bodies in this fresco, building upon C. Griffith Man’s preliminary consideration of the gendered imagery present within the fresco. Mann proposed that the prevalence of sexual violence lends itself to an intended female audience, noting Hell’s location near the female side of the congregation. (8) Mann also dissected the sexualized imagery, suggesting rape trials, Bernardino of Siena’s sermons against ornamented hair, and other sermons as pertinent contexts. (9) He wrote that this imagery was chosen because “these details provided the frescoes with a means of reaching one of the parish’s most regular constituents, even if in a language that was uncomfortably and insistently sexist.” (10) He concluded by stating that the imagery targeted women because they would then transmit these lessons within the domestic sphere to their husbands and children. (11) Situating this imagery within a discussion of contemporary punishments and statutes in Tuscany, this thesis argues that the misogyny permeating the larger communal culture informed the imagery of the fresco, thereby intensifying its moral message in a more specifically local context. In this scene of the Last Judgment, which often acted as a message of caution towards the congregation, the fundamental question posed is: how did these motifs of female punishment illustrate fourteenth and fifteenth century Italian anxieties surrounding sex and sexuality in the commune of San Gimignano? (12)

Hell: A Closer Look

(1) Griffith Mann, “From the Creation to the End of Time: The Nave Frescoes of San Gimignano’s Collegiata and the Structure of Civic Devotion,” (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2002), 410.

(2) Luca Giorgi and Pietro Matracchi, The Towers of San Gimignano. Architecture, Town, Restoration. Florence: DidaPress, 2019. https://issuu.com/dida-unifi/docs/giorgi-matracchi_libroweb

(3) Although Taddeo made much use of tituli in his Hell fresco, he did not invent the technique. In fact, Nardo di Cione utilized the technique for his Hell (1354-57) in the Strozzi Chapel in Florence, as did the artist of the Hell (c.1350) fresco at the Camposanto Monumentale di Pisa.

(4) Mann, 378-79.

(5) Mann, 386.

(6) In Dante’s Inferno, he grouped the sins of gluttony, avarice, and lust together. However, he viewed them as less grievous sins than those of sloth and wrath. Taddeo preserved Dante’s grouping but reversed their order. By placing the compartments of gluttony, avarice, and lust right under the zone containing Satan, Taddeo marked them as more serious sins than Dante, who held their location as farther away from the figure of ultimate evil (Solberg, 810).

(7) Early modern doctors equated the quality of the soul to the quality of the body. For example, a disease waging war on the body might have been seen in correlation to a disease of the soul; prior wrong acts would act out their consequence on the physical, exterior body. See Karen Raber, “The Common Body: Renaissance Popular Beliefs,” in A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Renaissance, ed. L. Kalof and W. Bynum (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010): 105-106.

(8) Mann, 411.

(9) Mann, 411-415.

(10) Mann, 414.

(11) Mann, 415.

(12) Mann, 422-423.