Duccio di Buoninsegna, commonly known as just Duccio, was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Duccio is considered one of the greatest Italian painters of the Middle Ages, and is credited with creating the painting styles of Trecento Gothic style and the Sienese school.
Paintings by Duccio
Madonna and Child (Duccio, Metropolitan) (2000)
Madonna and Child is a depiction of the Virgin and Child painted by Duccio di Buoninsegna, one of the most influential artists of the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The work is celebrated for stylistic innovations that introduced realism into Italian depictions of this subject.
Compared to frescoes and to larger, grander altarpieces, the Madonna and Child—a compact work measuring 11×81⁄8 inches—is understood to be an tranquil devotional image. Intimations of this reading appear in the burnt edges at the bottom of the original engaged frame, likely caused by lit candles positioned directly underneath.
Maestà (Duccio) (1400)
The Maestà, or Maestà of Duccio, is an altarpiece composed of many separate paintings commissioned from Duccio di Buoninsegna by the city of Siena in Tuscany in 1308 and is his major work. Duccio's Maestà was the first altarpiece to have both a front and back side. The front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets.
The reverse showed, in forty-three small panels, scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ, and were topped by and additional six panels showing angels. Several panels are now dispersed or lost. The base of the panel has an inscription that reads (in translation): "Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus." Though it took a generation for its effect to be truly felt, Duccio's Maestà set Italian painting on a course leading away from the hieratic representations of the Italo-Byzantine style and towards more direct presentations of reality, as developed by leading figures such as Giotto during the Trecento.
Rucellai Madonna (1285)
The Rucellai Madonna is a panel painting by the Sienese painter Duccio di Buoninsegna showing the Virgin and Child enthroned with Angels. The contract for the work is dated 1285. The painting was probably completed in 1286, and was commissioned by the Laudesi confraternity of Florence to decorate the chapel they maintained in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella. In 1591, the painting was moved to the adjacent, much larger Rucellai family chapel, hence the modern title of convenience. In the 19th century it was transferred to the Galleria degli Uffizi. The Rucellai Madonna is the largest surviving 13th-century panel painting.
The Rucellai Madonna is the earlier of the two works by Duccio for which there is written documentation (the other is the Maestà of 1308–11). The altarpiece was commissioned by the Compagnia dei Laudesi, a lay confraternity devoted to the Virgin, to decorate the chapel they occupied in the transept of the newly built Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The contract for the painting, dated 15 April 1285, is the oldest Italian document of its kind to survive. The contract states that Duccio was commissioned to paint a panel depicting the Virgin and Child and "other figures,” for which he was to be paid 150 lire. It enjoins the artist to work on no other commissions while completing the altarpiece, and specifies that the entire work must be painted by Duccio alone without workshop assistance. The contract also requires the artist to pay for and use ultramarine blue for the Virgin's robe and real gold leaf for the background. The framed panel itself—the largest of the Dugento—was supplied by the Laudesi. The patron had the right of refusal.
Gualino Madonna (1280)
The Gualino Madonna is a painting attributed to Cimabue, precursor to the Italian primitives, after having been attributed for some time to one of his contemporaries, Duccio di Buoninsegna. It is housed in the Galleria Sabauda of Turin, northern Italy.
The provenance of the panel is unknown. In 1910 it was sold on the Florence antiquary market covered by a 16th-century repainting, which was removed in 1920. In 1925 it was acquired by the Turinese entrepreneur and collector Riccardo Gualino who, in 1930, gave it to the Galleria Sabauda. In 1933-1959 it was in the Embassy of Italy, London, after which it returned to the Turinese museum.
Christ and the Samaritan Woman (1310)
Christ and the Woman of Samaria
Crevole Madonna (1283)
The Crevole Madonna is a tempera and gold on wood panel painting by the Tuscan painter Duccio di Buoninsegna, created c. 1283–1284. Originally located in the Pieve di Santa Cecilia in Crevole, it is now held in the Museo dell'Opera metropolitana del Duomo in Siena. It was one of the artist's first works.
Based on his investigation, Vittorio Lusini believes that the panel was probably made for the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo of Montepescini and then moved to the Augustinian hermitage of Montespecchio. With the suppression of the hermitage and the transfer of the monks in the 17th century, the panel was moved to the parish Church of Santa Cecilia in Crevole, which also housed the monks of Montespecchio. In recent times it was transferred to the Museo dell'Opera metropolitana del Duomo of the Siena Cathedral where it is located today. It was restored in 1929–1930. The state of conservation is more than satisfactory.
Madonna and Child with Saints Polyptych (1311)
The Madonna and Child with Saints Polyptych is a five-piece Madonna polyptych by Italian Renaissance artist Duccio di Buoninsegna, also referred to as Polyptych no. 47 by Duccio.
The bright colors and gold used in the work typify Duccio's usual style. Above the Madonna, Child and four saints, the polyptych depicts ten patriarchs and prophets. At the apex stands Christ, flanked by four angels positioned slightly below him. Among the saints depicted are Agnes, John the Evangelist, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene.
Madonna with Child and Six Angels (1300)
Madonna with Child and Six Angels, or The Perugia Madonna, is a Madonna painting by Gothic artist Duccio di Buoninsegna.
It was painted between 1300 and 1305, (tempera and gold on wood) and is located at the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, in Perugia, Italy. The painting had been kept above the sacristy door of the monastery of San Domenico in Perugia until 1863. The painting was attributed to Duccio by Curt Weigelt in 1911. Restoration revealed the painting to be the central panel of a former polyptych.
The Raising of Lazarus (1310)
The Raising of Lazarus
The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel (1308)
Nativity of Jesus
Madonna and Child with Saints (1300)
The-Madonna-and-Child-with-Saints
The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (1308)
Maestà, Altarretabel des Sieneser Doms, Rückseite, Predella mit Szenen zur Versuchung Christi und Wundertaten, Szene: Die Berufung der Apostel Petrus und Andreas