The painter and the widow: Taddeo di Bartolo, Datuccia Sardi da Campiglia, and the Sacristy Chapel in S. Francesco, Pisa

• Autores: Gail E. Solberg
• Localización: Gesta, ISSN 0016-920X, Vol. 49, Nº. 1, 2010, págs. 53-74
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Datuccia Sardi Da Campiglia, a remarkable female patron, was responsible for the sacristy chapel decoration at S. Francesco, Pisa, a cycle that features the Virgin Mary. This article outlines the conditions that led to her commission of the cycle. The chapel components, including a historiated window (1391), an altarpiece (1395), and a mural cycle (1397), are discussed individually to extract the multiple visual and written signs that refer to Datuccia. Although these self-referential mechanisms were traditional rather than novel, Datuccia's insistence on personalized devices and attention to female participants is unusual. Two Sienese artists, a glass master and principally the painter Taddeo di Bartolo, apparently followed her directives. The patron and the artists responded in turn to Franciscan requirements. As a few comparisons suggest, Datuccia has no female peer in Pisa or even in Florence. The article demonstrates the prestige of Datuccia's Pisan chapel by noting the vogue for sacristy patronage in contemporary Florence and by comparing the commissions of contemporaneous females, namely those in religious groups in Florence and in Pisa, and the consort of Padua's ruler.