Example religious influences dissertation topic 2:

Sienese artists: Representations of the Virgin Mary in the paintings of Taddeo di Bartolo.

Di Bartolo’s striking depictions of the Virgin Mary hark back to the traditions of the preceding generation of Sienese artists, and are noted for their sensitive depiction of a subject well represented in art at the time. This thesis examines in detail the triptych Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and St Andrew (c.1395), Madonna with Child, Four Angels and Saint John the Baptist and Saint Andrew (1400), Annunciation, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin (1401), Coronation of the Virgin (c.1405), and The Annunciation with St Cosmas and St Damian (1409). The representations of the Virgin Mary in these works are compared with the depictions of women in other paintings by di Bartolo, and note is made of the stylistic differences between such figures.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Rubinstein, N. (1958). ‘Political ideas in Sienese art: The frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo Pubblico’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 21(3/4), pp. 179-207.
• Solberg, G.E. (1991). Taddeo di Bartolo: His life and work. PhD thesis, New York University.
• Solberg, G.E. (1992). ‘A reconstruction of Taddeo de Batolo’s altar-piece for S.Francesco a Prato, Perugia’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 134(1075), pp. 645-656.