Maestà Altarpiece - Duccio di Buoninsegna
The Work
Duccio di Buoninsegna's Maestà (meaning 'Majesty') was the high altarpiece of the Duomo (Cathedral) of Siena from its installation in 1311 until 1506, when it was replaced and subsequently dismembered. It was a double-sided polyptych of extraordinary ambition: the front face showed the enthroned Virgin and Child surrounded by angels, apostles, and saints in a vast hierarchical composition; the back face was a continuous cycle of twenty-six Passion scenes in individual panels, preceded by scenes of Christ's earthly ministry and followed by scenes of the post-Resurrection appearances. The complete ensemble measured approximately 213 × 396 centimeters and is the most complex medieval altarpiece to survive in largely intact form. The main panel is now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena; sections that were sawn off during dismemberment are in the National Gallery, Washington, the National Gallery, London, and various private collections.
Biblical Source
The front face's enthroned Madonna draws on Luke 1:28-43 (the Annunciation and the theological title Theotokos, Mother of God), Revelation 12:1 (the Woman Clothed with the Sun), and the tradition of Byzantine Marian iconography derived from imperial court imagery. The inscription at the base of the throne incorporates Duccio's petition to the Virgin to 'give peace to Siena' and reward his painting - the most direct record of any medieval artist's understanding of his work as an act of devotional petition. The back face's Passion cycle follows John's Gospel with remarkable fidelity: the arrest in Gethsemane (John 18:3-12), the trial before Annas and Pilate, the Crucifixion (John 19:17-30), and the Resurrection appearances draw primarily on Johannine vocabulary.
Artist and Commission
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255-c. 1319) received the commission from the Opera del Duomo of Siena in 1308 for a fee recorded in a contract of October 9, 1308. He was required to devote himself exclusively to the work and was paid a daily wage. The scale and ambition of the commission were unprecedented; the ensemble required years of work by Duccio and his workshop. The completion was a civic event: contemporary chronicles record that on June 9, 1311, the altarpiece was processed through the streets of Siena from Duccio's workshop to the Duomo, accompanied by the Bishop, the city's magistrates, and the entire population in a procession that included bells, trumpets, and the poor receiving alms. This procession - treating an artwork as a sacred relic in transit - is one of the most dramatic documented events in medieval art patronage.
Iconography
The front face's central image of the enthroned Virgin is within the Byzantine tradition of the Maestà (majestic enthroned Virgin) but transformed by Duccio's late Duecento innovations: the Virgin's face has an emotional expressiveness beyond Byzantine prototype, and the surrounding angels and saints are individualized with a naturalism that anticipates Giotto. The gold background is not merely decorative but theological, representing the eternal, uncreated light of heaven in which the scene takes place. The throne's elaborate Gothic tracery architecture frames the divine court as a celestial version of Sienese civic architecture - heaven imagined as the ideal city. The back face's Passion cycle achieves a narrative sophistication unprecedented in Italian painting: spatial coherence between consecutive scenes, the use of architectural settings to define narrative episodes, and facial expressions that convey specific emotional states.
Art Historical Significance
The Maestà is the summit of Sienese medieval painting and one of the most important documents in the history of Western art. Duccio's synthesis of Byzantine tradition with nascent naturalism established the Sienese school's distinctive character - more aristocratic, more refined, more emotionally intense than the Florentine school - which persisted through Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. The altarpiece's narrative sophistication in the Passion panels directly influenced Giotto, whose own narrative cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel (begun c. 1304) is the other great innovative achievement of the period. Together Duccio and Giotto define the moment of medieval painting's transformation into Renaissance naturalism.
Theological Interpretations
The altarpiece's double-sided structure encodes a comprehensive Marian and Christological theology. The front face's enthroned Virgin represents the Incarnation - God taking human flesh through Mary - while the back face's Passion cycle represents the Redemption that the Incarnation makes possible. The viewer standing before the front face during the Mass saw the Virgin interceding for humanity; the clergy performing the liturgy at the altar saw the Passion cycle behind, connecting the Eucharist they celebrated to the historical events it re-presents. The altarpiece was thus a liturgical instrument as well as a devotional image, its two faces designed for two different acts of seeing.
Controversies
The dismemberment of the altarpiece in 1506 when it was removed from the high altar is one of the great tragedies of art history. The individual panels were sawn apart and dispersed; some were lost entirely; the reconnection of the surviving pieces has been a scholarly project of the twentieth century. The question of whether the dispersed panels in Washington, London, and elsewhere should be reunited with the main panel in Siena has become a minor instance of the broader cultural heritage debate.
Legacy
The Maestà is the founding document of Sienese painting and a major influence on European Gothic art. The front face's enthroned Virgin was reproduced in paintings and illuminated manuscripts throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Passion cycle's narrative innovations were absorbed into the mainstream of Italian painting.
Visiting the Work
The main panels are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, adjacent to the cathedral. The museum is small and dedicated to the cathedral's artistic heritage; the Maestà gallery is the centerpiece. Parts of the dismembered ensemble are in the National Gallery, London (the Annunciation and three other panels) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Further Reading
John White, Duccio: Tuscan Art and the Medieval Workshop (1979); James H. Stubblebine, Duccio di Buoninsegna and His School (1979); Henk van Os, Sienese Altarpieces 1215-1460 (1984); Diana Norman, Siena and the Virgin (1999); Max Seidel, Italian Art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (2003).