Duccio di Buoninsegna

Italian Painter of the Sienese School

1255-1319

Influences: Coppo di Marcovaldo

Cause of Death - Leprosy

The Last Supper, from the Passion Alt... Buy From Art.com	Maesta: Christ Appearing on the Road ... Buy From Art.com	Madonna Enthroned (Front of the Maest... Buy From Art.com

While Byzantine art is stormy and rigid, Sienese painting is  youthful, lovely, and graceful. The prevailing characteristic being slender, supple grace. It seems as if the stone vaults of the churches had suddenly become transparent, and the eyes gazed upwards towards heaven, where tender ethereal beings, singing and praising the Highest, lived in eternal youth and lovingly gazed down upon mankind. In his great Madonna of the Cathedral Duccio gave first impulse of greatness. This new Mary is no linger severe and dignified, but mild and gracious, as if she has had  pity upon the longing soul of the believer; for a soft dreamy melancholy transfigures her features.  Her relation to the Child also is changed; she is no longer the involuntary mother of God, but a tender mother. Duccio explored in his own art a new world of emotion and passion, but with a lyricism and sensitivity to color that became the foundation of Sienese painting.

 

  Duccio di Buoninsegna painted religious subjects, but was known  among his contemporaries as volatile and caustic man. He was  accused of  both heresy and spell-casting and was fined by the courts several times for sorcery.   In the Middle Ages  accusations of sorcery were frequent and highly public. The Church stated "All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. "  His accuser was probably a jealous rival. 

Buoninsegna' s paintings became prized by the church and royal court for their suave elegance and lively brilliance. He became a well-known painter with a distinctive manner. Quintessentially Italian, The Sienna School was the part of a vibrant, rich tradition that epitomized Duccio di Buoninsegna' s living and painting style.
 His  style was typified by a certain fantastic exuberance, and carefully articulated composition. It is this which gives  his Madonna's their unique peevish-looking expression and charm. He has worked out in them a distinct and peculiar type. 

His subjects, like his predecessors, are all religious – the Virgin Mary, the Life of Christ, the Apostles, Angeles and the Life of St. Francis.

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