Duccio's The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea

Art History

Siena

Duccio's Maesta (front)
Duccio's Maesta (back)
Duccio, The Rucellai Madonna, 1285-86
Duccio's Madonna and Child
Duccio's The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea
Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Palazzo Pubblico frescos: Allegory and Effect of Good and Bad Government
Lorenzetti's Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Simone Martini's Annunciation
Nicola, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery; and Giovanni Pisano, Slaughter of the Innocents, Pulpit, Sant'Andrea church, Pistoia

Duccio's The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea, c. 1315, tempera on wood, 42.5 x 34.5 cm (National Gallery, London). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

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Duccio's The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea

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[music]
Dr. Steven Zucker: We're in the National Gallery in London
and we're looking at a really rare painting
--a painting by Duccio
--there are very few in the world
--this is a virgin child with saints
--it's got at the top of it a little teeny
image of King David
Dr. Beth Harris: From the Old Testament
Dr. Zucker: And he's surround by Old Testament prophets
who are identified with their scrolls
Dr. Harris: It's sort of standard iconography
--so you have the prophets who foretell
the coming of Christ
--and then below here we have a triptych
so that when the wings are open
--Mary and Christ are revealed
--so it's kind of wonderful in that
you have the prophets at the top
--who are always there with King David
--and then when the triptych is open the revealing
of the truth of their prophecy comes to be
--and King David was thought to be or understood to be
an ancestor of Christ
Dr. Zucker: And is wearing a blue that relates
directly to the blue that Mary wears
--there is a kind of intimacy here
that is absolutely revolutionary and is the foundation
of the Renaissance later
--look at the way the Christ child looks up
really adoringly at his mother
Dr. Harris: Sort of grabs hold of her vail
to sort of make sure he sees her face
Dr. Zucker: And look at the delicacy
of that vail--I think that's one of the most
beautiful areas of this painting
--the way in which he gathers her vail in one hand
and pulls on it with the other
--and creates this very soft kind of arc
between them--this bridge between them
--Duccio is a Sienese artist
and certainly Duccio's work is characterized
by the sensitivity to the decorative
both in the subtlety of color but also in form
--a kind of interest in the decorative
for its own sake
--and I think you really see that in the way
that Christ pulls at the inner garment
around Mary's neck and creates
a series of really beautiful and rhythmic folds
Dr. Harris: Ya--and playful lines and curves
that carry down around the golden hem
of Christ's garment and Mary's garment
Dr. Zucker: You see it also in the rendering
of St. Aurea whose a rare saint
to shown in paintings of this time
-- I think of any time
-- And St. Dominic on the left as well
-- both of those saints are so direct
that they seem to be almost stepping out of the picture plane
--there's a sense of truthfulness--of veracity almost
that seems so precocious for this moment
Dr. Harris: I think when we look overall
at the painting--at this little altar piece
that would have been a private altar piece
for private devotion that someone could carry around
if they moved and wanted to have the ability
to worship and pray
--so it's important to remember that
this is an aid in prayer
--but when we look at it there is a real sense
of the physical presence of the saints on either side
and of that emotion connection
with Mary and her physical presence
--so we are seeing the beginnings
of this change to the Renaissance
Dr. Zucker: It's so interesting that Duccio
is creating these connections which will lay
foundation for the Renaissance
which will come a century later
--but at the same time this is so firmly rooted
also in the medieval tradition
and we're never very far from that
--not only do we have these broad gold
fields which are really representation
of the divine light of heaven
--there's no rational relationship
between the figures in terms of scale
--and then of course there's that strong
byzantine influence still in the elongation
of the nose--look at Mary--of her fingers
--even as Duccio begins to explore the possibility
of creating a more intimate
and I think emotionally charged rendering
[music]

Learn more about this work of art in context at smarthistory.khanacademy.org

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