University of Sydney / Faculty of Arts / Department of Italian Studies / Staff / Honoraries

Dr Dugald McLellan

BA LLB PhD Melb
Research Associate


Dugald McLellan, a Research Associate in the Department, is currently completing a major monograph on the Last Judgement fresco cycle of Luca Signorelli in the Duomo of Orvieto. Related to this project is a cultural history of late 15th century Orvieto.

He has also been working on two ARC-funded projects associated with the Department: first, as Associate Investigator (with Dr Diana Modesto as Principal Investigator) on the project The 1481 Landino Commentary to Dante’s Inferno: text and illustration (funded by an ARC Small Grant); and secondly, as part of the Australian Dante Manuscript Team working on The electronic Commedia project: the first electronic transcription, collation and analysis of key early Divine Comedy manuscripts’ (an ARC Large Grant over 3 years).

Research Areas

  • The Signorelli frescoes of Orvieto Cathedral
  • Dante manuscripts and their illuminations

Current Projects

  • Istanbul, Turkey 27/01/07-13/02/07
    Tracing the provenance of the illustrated manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Italicus 1) now held in the Library of the University of Budapest but until 1877 part of the collection of the Ottoman Sultans in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul. The objective in Istanbul was to explore the various repositories that might help in reconstructing the history of the manuscript. The following libraries and archives were visited: the Topkapi Palace/Library; the University Library; the National Archives; the Library of the Suleimaniye complex.

Areas of Teaching and Research Supervision

Teaching

Renaissance Art History

Recent Publications

  • ‘Da tiranno a cittadino: la committenza artistica dei Monaldeschi nel tardo-Quattrocento orvietano’, in Antonio Quattranni (ed.), I Monaldeschi nella storia della Tuscia, Atti della giornata di studio, Bolsena, 24 giugno 1994, Bolsena, 1995 (Italy)

    ‘The Cappella Nuova at Orvieto before Signorelli: Perugino and the Opera del Duomo – a question of commitment’, Studi di Storia dell’Arte, 7 (1996), 307-32 [1997] (Italy)
  • Signorelli’s Orvieto Frescoes. A guide to the Cappella Nuova of Orvieto Cathedral, Quattroemme, Perugia, 1998, reprint 2000 (Italian edition: Guida agli affreschi di Luca Signorelli nella Cappella Nuova o di San Brizio del Duomo di Orvieto, Quattroemme, Perugia 1998)
  • ‘The Great God Pan Reborn in Renaissance Florence’, Spunti e Ricerche, 14 (1999), 74-90
  • ‘Il novo giorno: Earthly Paradise at Orvieto, 1500’, in Margaret Baker and Diana Glenn (eds), Dante Colloquia in Australia 1982-1999, Adelaide 2000, 143-64
  • Inferno, modern edition of Commentary by Cristoforo Landino to Dante’s Divina Commedia, Florence 1481, with Dr Diana Modesto, published electronically (free online) on Dartmouth Dante Database (Professor Robert Hollander, Princeton University), 2002
  • ‘Tra culto e ruolo civico: una lettura degli affreschi di Luca Signorelli nel Duomo di Orvieto’, Bollettino Istituto Storico Artistico Orvietano, L-LVII (1994-2001), 357-73 [2002] (Italy)

Conference Activity

  • Convenor of The Brancacci Chapel Programme and the Petrine Tradition
    A Symposium to mark the publication of The Brancacci Chapel: Form, Function and Setting. Collected Essays of a Symposium held 6-7 June 2003 in the Harvard University Centre for Italian Studies, Villa I Tatti (Florence: Leo Olschki Editore, 2005), edited by Dr Nicholas Eckstein, Thursday 18 October 2007, Senior Common Room, St Paul’s College, University of Sydney
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