Maestà (Duccio)
Altarpiece by Duccio for Siena Cathedral, dismembered and partially lost / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Maestà, or Maestà of Duccio, is an altarpiece composed of many individual paintings commissioned by the city of Siena in 1308 from the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna[1] and is his most famous work.[2] Duccio's the Maestà was originally composed with a front and back side that relied on each other to encompass the full knowledge of the altarpiece. This was the first altarpiece to contain both a front and back side.[3] 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 has the rest of a combined cycle of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in a total of forty-three small scenes; 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."[4] 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 Byzantine art towards more direct presentations of reality.
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Maestà | |
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Artist | Duccio di Buoninsegna |
Year | 1308–1311 |
Type | Tempera and gold on wood |
Dimensions | 213 cm × 396 cm (84 in × 156 in) |
Location | Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena |