Dr Sandra Cardarelli

Biography

I graduated with a PhD in History of Art from the University of Aberdeen with a thesis entitled “Siena and its Contado: Art, Iconography and Patronage in the Diocese of Grosseto from c. 1380 to c. 1480”. My research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council  and examined the relationship between the commune of Siena and the territories under its control, and how this reflected on the artistic output of the diocese of Grosseto, in Southern Tuscany. It also explored the dynamics of patronage in this area. I previously completed an Masters of Letters with Distinction and a BA (Hons).

I have been working on the visual culture of liminal communities in Tuscany, and on broader issues such as the role of art and visual culture in the formation of individual and collective identities. This research resulted in the co-edited volume: "Art and Identity: Visual Culture, Politics and Religion in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" (Cambridge Scholars, 2012). I also work on sanctity, visual culture and healing, and this is also part of the co-edited volume: "Saints, Miracles and the Image: Healing Saints and Miraculous Images in the Renaissance (Brepols, 2018). A monograph on an altarpiece commissioned from Sienese artist Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo (c. 1430-1495) now housed in the Pinacoteca of Siena, has been published recently in Italian with the sponsorship of the Diocese of Grosseto.

My research on patronage and devotion in Renaissance Florence resulted in an article on Filippo Lippi's Alessandri altarpiece, published in the current issue of the Metropolitan Museum Journal.

I am currently co-editing a follow up book entitled: "Visual Networks of Healing in Renaissance Italy", and I set up a discussion group on Facebook to provide a platform for the exchange of knoweldge and ideas on anything related to healing in the visual arts:

www.facebook.com/groups/visiblehealing/.

Research Overview

• The interplay between centres and peripheries with particular emphasis on fifteenth-century Siena and Florence and how this shaped artistic outputs, iconography, patronage and devotion
• Faith and Healing as represented in the Visual Arts
• Religious and Secular Authority and Patronage