Duccio

gigatos | February 28, 2022

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Summary

Duccio di Buoninsegna (his importance is measured even on a European scale. It is generally considered that his influence was decisive in the evolution of the international Gothic style, which was exerted in particular on Simone Martini and the two brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti.

Duccio”s art originally had a strong Byzantine component, linked in particular to the more recent culture of the Palaeologus period, and was strongly influenced by Cimabue (who was certainly his teacher in his early years), to which he added a personal note in the direction of the Gothic, resulting in a transalpine linearity and elegance, a soft line and a refined chromatic range.

Over time, Duccio”s style achieves results that are more and more natural and filled with softness. He also integrated the innovations introduced by Giotto, such as the rendering of contrast according to one or more light sources, the volume of figures and drapery, the rendering of perspective. His masterpiece, La Maestà in the cathedral of Siena, is an emblematic work of the Italian 14th century.

First works

The first mention of Duccio appears in 1278 in the archives of the city of Siena, for the payment of book covers (Biccherna) and for twelve painted boxes intended to contain documents of the municipality. These works are now lost. The date of birth is usually given as between 1250 and 1260. No earlier writings give details of his training. He could have been taught by the painter Cimabue, or trained in a Sienese workshop. He probably did not work on the great construction site of the time, the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, but he knew the paintings. He was also familiar with the Florentine innovations of spatial representation. The presence of nods to classical antiquity in his work attests that he looked closely at the work of Nicola Pisano, sculptor at the cathedral of Siena from 1256 to 1284. Gothic elements in his work may have suggested a trip to France in the years 1280-1285; however, it is likely that he knew French art only through imported objects, such as illuminated manuscripts; Nicola Pisano himself was familiar with Gothic art, probably through the small ivory objects that the Parisian workshops exported throughout Europe.

The earliest surviving work by Duccio is the so-called “Gualino Madonna” which is now in the Sabauda Gallery in Turin (its original provenance is unknown). Painted around 1280-1283, it shows a style very close to that of Cimabue, so much so that it was long attributed to the Florentine master rather than to Duccio. The panel is reminiscent of Cimabue”s Majesties in the general setting, in the strong Byzantine derivation and the absence of Gothic features, in the somatic features of the Virgin, in the Child”s dress and in the use of contrast. This strong Cimabuesque influence, which would also be evident in later works, although gradually fading, has led to the belief that there was a teacher-student relationship between the “old” Cimabue and the young Duccio. However, already in this first work of Duccio, new elements appear: a chromatic richness that leads to colors that do not belong to the Florentine repertoire (such as the pink of the Child”s dress, the wine red of the Virgin”s dress and the blue of the mantle), the small nose of the infant that makes his face softer and more childlike, the woolly skein of Byzantine chrysographies of Mary”s dress. But these are still details and the painting is decidedly Cimabuesque.

In the Madonna of Crevole, a later work from 1283-1284, which comes from the parish church of Santa Cecilia in Crevole and is now on display at the Museo dell”Opera Metropolitana del Duomo in Siena, there is a greater divergence from Cimabue”s style. The Virgin”s face is softer and more refined, without betraying an expression that is still serious and deep. The child”s small nose remains, but he also makes an affectionate gesture towards his mother.

Two dry paintings, unfortunately very damaged, also date from the same years, found in the Bardi Chapel (once dedicated to St. Gregory the Great) of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Located in the upper left and right lunettes of the chapel, they represent respectively Saint Gregory the Great between two flabelliferae and Christ enthroned between two angels. In this case, too, one cannot fail to notice the strong detachment from Cimabue, but it is precisely the elegance of the angels” faces and the enveloping skein of Christ”s robe on the throne that makes us appreciate, once again, the peculiarity of the Florentine master.

Madonna Rucellai

On April 15, 1285, Duccio received his first major commission, the so-called “Madonna Rucellai,” commissioned in honor of the Virgin by a Florentine lay brotherhood, the Compagnia dei Laudesi. The panel is destined for the Bardi Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the same chapel where the remains of the dry paintings by Duccio described above were found. The panel is named “Rucellai” because from 1591 it was placed in the adjoining chapel, Rucellai, before reaching the Uffizi. This work represents the Virgin and Child in majesty, flanked by six angels in front of a golden background. The perimeter of the panel is decorated with medallions showing prophets, apostles and saints in bust form. The painter tries to model the fabrics and the bodies, with games of gradations of color. He also tries to respect the rules of perspective, without always succeeding.

The work was inspired by Cimabue”s Maestà in the Louvre, painted about five years earlier, so much so that for a long time it was considered a work by the latter. This erroneous attribution was maintained even after the discovery of the deed of transfer in 1790. This “Maestà” is a key work in the artist”s career, where Cimabue”s solid majesty and human representation intersect with greater aristocracy and refinement, as well as with an even softer human content. The work is characterized by decorative motifs of Gothic origin, such as the fanciful golden hem of Mary”s dress that traces an intricate line from chest to feet, the Gothic mullioned windows of the wooden throne, and the Virgin”s cloak more “imbued” with Byzantine chrysographies, but softened by soft, drooping folds. It is especially these Gothic elements that mark a new departure from Cimabue, who still remains rooted in the Byzantine tradition.

Given its size, the panel was probably painted on site and not transported once completed.

The Madonna and Child and Three Franciscans in Adoration, a small panel of unknown origin now on display at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, is also dated to around 1285.

Works from the end of the century

After the Madonna Rucellai of 1285, the stained glass window in the Duomo of Siena, the original of which is now in the Museo dell”Opera Metropolitana del Duomo (the one in the Duomo is a copy), is the only work attributed to Duccio from the end of the century for which documentation allows its dating with certainty. Although the window was made by master glassmakers, it is now believed that its design belongs to the patriarch of Sienese painting, who worked on it in 1287-1288. The throne in the Coronation of the Virgin and the four Evangelists are architectural thrones made of marble, not wood like the one in the Madonna Rucellai or Cimabue”s previous thrones. This is the first known example of an architectural throne in marble, a prototype that Duccio would continue to use and that would become very popular from then on, even in the neighboring Florence of Cimabue and Giotto.

The Madonna in Majesty among Angels, whose origin is unknown and which is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern, Switzerland, is thought to be later (1290-1295). This work allows us to appreciate the evolution of Duccio”s style over the years. A greater spatial depth in the arrangement of the angels, no longer one above the other as in the Rucellai Madonna, but one behind the other as in Cimabue”s Maestà in the Louvre, is immediately evident in this Little Majesty. The angels forming the same couple are not even perfectly symmetrical, as shown by the different positions of their arms. This new element avoids the repetitive symmetry of the angels in the Rucellai Madonna, favoring their differentiation. Even the throne, although it has a similar frame to that of the Madonna Rucellai, has a better axonometric perspective and seems to be inserted more adequately in space, thus following the canons of meaningful perspective. These developments show that Duccio was still inspired by the Master Cimabue, who was very attentive to spatial coherence and to the volumes of things and characters, but that he continued his path towards a figurative elegance of his own, a path that he had already begun with the Madonna of Crevole. Although the large faces remain Cimabuesque, the somatic features appear more delicate (for example, the shade of the bridge at the base of the nose, the tight and shaded lips, and the nose of the Child). The arrangement of the folds of the clothes also appears more natural and softer.

Other works, generally attributed to Duccio, are dated between 1285 and 1300, but there is no unanimous consensus among experts on the dating, such as the Madonna and Child from the church of Saints Peter and Paul in Buonconvento, now kept in the Museum of Sacred Art of the Val d”Arbia, also in Buonconvento. Traditionally dated just after 1280, recent archival research would testify to Duccio”s passage to Buonconvento after 1290 and precise studies on the arrangement of the folds of the Virgin”s cloak and the loss of the angular features of her face, would suggest a dating around 1290-1295.

According to some experts, the painted cross in the Orsini-Odescalchi castle in Bracciano was also made after 1285. Formerly in the Odescalchi collection in Rome, and now in the Salini collection in Siena, the Christ with open eyes is still alive, taking up an iconography of the Romanesque period (the Christus Triumphans), very rare at the end of the 13th century. According to some, the Crucifix of the church of San Francesco in Grosseto also dates from this period. For these two crucifixes, the consensus of experts is not unanimous, even as regards the attribution to Duccio, unlike the three paintings representing the Flagellation, The Crucifixion and The Burial of Christ, of unknown origin and now deposited at the Museo della Società di esecutori di pie disposizioni (it) in Siena.

Works of the early Trecento

With the works of the first years of the new century, Duccio di Buoninsegna achieved a mature and autonomous style, now dissociated from that of Cimabue. The faces of the figures are more elongated and the facial features softer, thanks to a softer brushstroke that smoothes the angular features of the face. In the numerous panels with the Child painted in this period, the Madonna and Child have their own physiognomies, quite distinct from those of the Rucellai Madonna or the Madonna of Crevole, which were still in the Cimabusa style, even the drapery is enriched with natural and soft folds. An unprecedented figurative realism prevails that allowed Duccio to acquire the reputation of being the best artist of the city of Siena. Polyptych no. 28, perhaps from the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena and now housed in the National Pinacoteca in Siena, is an example of this mature style. The panel also has the distinction of being the first architectural polyptych with independent compartments, a prototype that was to be used more and more.

The triptych with doors belonging to the British royal family and the triptych with doors depicting the Virgin and Child between St. Dominic and St. Aurea of Ostia in the National Gallery in London (both of unknown provenance and dated 1300) also date from this period, The Madonna and Child in the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia (from the Basilica of San Domenico in Perugia) and the Madonna Stoclet, so called because it belonged to the Belgian Adolphe Stoclet before arriving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (provenance unknown). The triptych with doors with the Crucifixion between Saints Nicholas of Bari and Clement (provenance unknown) would belong to the end of this period (1304-1307), shortly before Duccio began the grandiose Maestà in Siena Cathedral.

In all these paintings it is possible to appreciate the figurative realism and the aristocratic nature of the faces, typical of Duccio”s art and unmatched in early fourteenth century Italy. It is also possible to admire the rich volumes of the clothes whose features are now acquired by the Florentine school, which was the first source of learning and inspiration for Duccio. This is how Duccio became the most accredited artist in Siena, the only one to whom the city government could think of entrusting the task of creating a work as grandiose and costly as the Maestà to be placed on the high altar of Siena Cathedral, undoubtedly the artist”s masterpiece.

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Maestà

The Maestà is Duccio”s masterpiece and one of the most emblematic works of Italian art. It was commissioned by the city of Siena for the high altar of the cathedral in 1308, as evidenced by the written documentation that allows us to trace the contract (1308) and the local chronicle that testifies to the presence of the master and his workshop at the Duomo (1311). Now separated into several panels, the whole, painted on both sides, must have originally been five meters high and almost as wide. It remained in place on the high altar until 1506, when it was moved to another altar, from which it was dismantled in 1771, before being divided between two different altars, where it remained until 1878. Some of the panels were subsequently dispersed to Europe and the United States; five of them have not been found. The Maestà is now in the Museo dell”Opera Metropolitana del Duomo.

The front side shows the Virgin and Child surrounded by angels and saints, a theme that will be repeated for several generations. The back side depicts scenes from the Infancy and Passion of Christ. The work testifies to Duccio”s knowledge of the Scrovegni Chapel painted by Giotto in Padua.

Completed in June 1311, its fame was so great even before its completion that on June 9, its transportation to the Cathedral from Duccio”s workshop in the Stalloreggi district, was the occasion of a real popular festival along the streets of Siena, completed by a procession: at the head of the procession, came the bishop and the highest authorities of the city, while the people, carrying lit candles, sang and gave alms. The fervor grows: the Virgin, protector of the Sienese territory, receives, at last, the homage of a work worthy of her, from which the population expects an effective intercession.

It is a large panel (425 × 212 cm) with two sides, even if it is now cut in the thickness after a questionable intervention in the nineteenth century that has not failed to create some damage. On the main side, the one that originally faced the faithful, is painted a monumental Virgin and Child enthroned, surrounded by a multitude of saints and angels on a golden background. The Virgin is seated on a large and sumptuous throne, which gives a glimpse of a three-dimensional space according to the innovations already practiced by Cimabue and Giotto. She is painted in a soft color, which gives naturalness to her complexion. The Child expresses a deep tenderness, but his body does not seem to generate any weight and Mary”s hands holding him are rather unnatural. At the base of the throne is the signature and prayer in Latin verse: “MATER S (AN) CTA DEI

The reverse side was intended to be seen by the clergy. It depicts 26 Stories of the Passion of Christ, divided into small panels that constitute one of the largest cycles dedicated to this theme in Italy. The Crucifixion takes center stage, with a greater width and double height, as does the double panel at the bottom left with the Entry into Jerusalem. In various scenes, Duccio repeats Giotto”s architectural backdrops in terms of “perspective,” but in others he deliberately makes exceptions to spatial representation in order to highlight details that are important to him, such as the table set up in the Last Supper scene (which is too inclined in relation to the ceiling) or the gesture of Pontius Pilate in the Flagellation: Pilate is standing on a platform under the roof of an aedicula, his hand passes in front of the column that supports the roof, moving forward, he would hit the column facing him. Duccio does not seem to be interested in over-complicating the scenes with absolute spatial rules: sometimes the narrative is more effective precisely in these scenes where a traditional rocky landscape frees him from the constraint of the three-dimensional representation.

The altarpiece also had a predella painted on all sides (the first known in Italian art), the cusped panels being crowned with Scenes from the life of Mary (some of which are in foreign collections and museums.

It is possible to find in the Maestà all the realism of the faces of the characters that Duccio was able to achieve, as well as his now acquired ability to draw things and characters according to the canons of Giotto”s direct perspective (and not Cimabue”s antiquated reverse perspective, which he took up until the end of the 13th century). The clothes have a voluminous drapery, the contrast is rendered with attention to the origin of the light sources, trends also inherited from Giotto. The work is also distinguished by the profusion of details and decorations, from the marble inlays of the throne to the fine pattern of the cloth on the back of the throne itself, from the hair of the angels to the ornaments of the saints. The cohesion of the elements of the Florentine matrix with Duccio”s figurative realism, all enhanced by extreme attention to detail, makes this work one of the masterpieces of the Trecento.

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Latest works

Only two works can be attributed with certainty to the Duccesco catalog after the Maestà of the Cathedral of Siena, both of which are unfortunately in a less than optimal state of preservation: Polyptych no. 47, originally destined for the now-defunct church of the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala and now on display in the National Picture Gallery in Siena (1315-1319), and the Maestà of the Cathedral of Massa Marittima (ca. 1316).

According to some experts, the fresco with the Surrender of the Giuncarico Castle, in the Hall of the World Map of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena (1314), is also by Duccio, but there are many doubts about this.

Duccio died at an unknown date, in 1318 or 1319. In 1319, his sons refused the inheritance, burdened by heavy debts.

Duccio had many students during his lifetime, although it is not known whether they were real students who grew artistically in his studio, or painters who simply imitated his style. Many of them are anonymous and are identified only by a body of work with common stylistic traits. The first students, whom we can collectively call the “first generation disciples”, were active between 1290 and 1320 and include the Master of Badia a Isola, the Master of Città di Castello, the Master of the Aringhieri, the Master of the Collations of the Holy Fathers and the Master of San Polo in Rosso. Another group of “second generation disciples” was active between about 1300 and 1335, and included Segna di Bonaventura, Ugolino di Nerio, the Master of Majesty Gondi, the Master of Monte Oliveto and the Master of Monterotondo. However, it should be noted that Segna di Bonaventura was already active before 1300, thus placing him temporally between the first and second group of artists. A third group followed Duccio only a few years after his death, testifying to the impact of his painting in Siena and throughout Tuscany. These artists, active between about 1330 and 1350, include the sons of Segna di Bonaventura, i.e. Niccolò di Segna and Francesco di Segna, and a pupil of Ugolino di Nerio, the Master of Chianciano.

Some of these artists were influenced by Duccio alone, their works being similar to those of the master, such as the Master of Badia a Isola, Ugolino di Nerio, Segna di Bonaventura and their children. Other artists were also influenced by other schools, such as the Maestro degli Aringhieri, sensitive to the massive volumes of Giotto, and the Maestro della Maestà Gondi, also influenced by Simone Martini.

Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti must be treated separately. Both artists painted works similar to Duccio”s from about 1305 and 1310, respectively, but their production shows original characteristics from the beginning, as evidenced by Simone”s Madonna and Child no. 583 (1305-1310) and Lorenzetti”s Orsini Triptych painted in Assisi around 1310-1315. Later, both artists matured completely autonomous styles, which allowed them to be given an artistic dignity free from the label of “Duccio”s disciple”.

Among these, his work includes, in addition to a Madonna painted on wood around 1300 :

The crater Duccio on the planet Mercury was named after him.

On August 16, 2003 in Siena, was held a palio in his honor, won by the Nobile Contrada del Bruco with the horse Berio ridden by the jockey Luigi Bruschelli known as Trecciolino. A second palio was run on August 16, 2011, won by the Contrada della Giraffa with the horse Fedora Saura, ridden by Andrea Mari, known as Brio.

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