DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA (c. Italian painter of the Sienese School. His father's name was Buoninsegna. We learn some facts regarding Duccio's work from the records of the exchequer of the city of Siena (Libri d'entrata e uscita of the Biccherna). In 1278 he was employed as a painter by the commune to decorate cassoni in which public documents were kept. From 1285 to 1295 he received five commissions to decorate book-covers of the Biccherna. He seems therefore to have been a craftsman at the beginning of his career, and his work on book covers may have brought him in touch with Byzantine illumi nations.
According to a document in the state archives at Florence (Mi lanesi, Documenti etc., vol. i. pp. 158-16o) he was asked in 1285 to paint a large Madonna for the church of Sta. Maria Novella at Florence. This picture has been identified with the celebrated Ruccellai Madonna, long regarded as the work of Cimabue. In 1295 Duccio was consulted as to the site of the Fonte Nova, a Gothic fountain outside the Porta Ovile of Siena, showing that his knowledge was not confined to painting. In 1302 he was paid for a "Madonna enthroned" in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena, a pic ture now lost. In 1308 he began work on the great altarpiece for the Siena cathedral, which he undertook to carry out with his own hand. When the work was completed on June 9, 1311, a public holiday was proclaimed, and amid the rejoicing crowds the pic ture was carried in procession to the cathedral, accompanied by the principal men of the city, and placed over the high altar underneath the cupola. This was the climax of Duccio's career. He died eight years later, on Aug. 3, 1319. His great masterpiece is now preserved in the Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum). It adorned a double altar and was painted on both sides. The front represents the "Majestas," the Virgin Enthroned surrounded by angels and saints. The back is made up of small panels repre senting the life of Christ. Below was a predella, also made up of small panels. Several of these small pictures have found their way to England. Three are in the National Gallery, London. The four of the Benson Collection were acquired by Duveen; and one of these is now in the Frick Collection, New York. The altarpiece is the one fully authenticated work of the master extant, and repre sents his later style. The following works are attributed to Duccio for stylistic reasons. To his early period belong, besides the Ruccellai Madonna mentioned above, three smaller pictures : the little Madonna with three Franciscans in the Siena Gallery, the Madonna from Count Stroganoff's Collection, and the triptych in the National Gallery representing the Madonna and two saints. These paintings adhere closely to the Byzantine type. In the Na tional Gallery triptych, however, a new influence makes itself felt. Here the gesture of childlike love contrasting with the sad expression in the mother's face is an innovation in Byzantine as well as in Italian art, and marks the direction in which Duccio was to develop. A triptych representing "the Crucifixion" in Buckingham Palace is ascribed to the master's second period. A very fine example of the artist's later period is the Crucifixion in Lord Crawford's collection; this work is contemporary with the altarpiece in the Opera del Duomo. When comparing his later with his early work, we find a marked advance in the expression of emotion. The figures are inspired with virile energy. Moreover, Gothic features are introduced in the architecture and in the ren dering of drapery, trees and animals. Nevertheless the Byzantine formulae are closely adhered to as regards the composition of figures. The harmoniously coloured shapes are arranged in an ex pressive two-dimensioned design, contrasting with the plastic con ception of form in the work of Giotto, his younger contemporary. We do not know where Duccio learned his art. Both Vasari and Ghiberti agree that he painted in the "Maniera greca," and it is thought that he may have derived his training directly from Byzantine sources. He may have aimed at a revival of Byzantine painting at a time when the art of Central Italy was hopelessly de generated. Though his influence was felt in the general develop ment of Sienese art, he had but one or two direct followers : Segna di Buonaventura and Ugolino da Siena. Meanwhile Giotto carried the whole of Italy with him. Duccio may therefore be called the last and greatest representative of the Byzantine tradition.
See A. Lisini, "Notizie di Duccio Pittore" in the Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria (Sienna, 1898) ; J. P. Richter, Lectures on the National Gallery (1898) ; Langton Douglas, History of Siena (1902) ; J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, ed. L. Douglas (end ed., 1903-14) ; C. H. Weigelt, Duccio di Buoninsegna (191 I) . (I. A. R.) DU CHAILLU, PAUL BELLONI traveller and anthropologist, was born, probably in Paris, on July 31, In his youth he accompanied his father, who was in the African trade, to the west coast of Africa. In 1855 he settled in America, and was commissioned by the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia to explore the delta of the Ogowe river and the estuary of the Gabun. During his travels he saw numbers of the anthropoid apes, then known to scientists only by a few skeletons. A subsequent expedition, from 1863 to 1865, enabled him to confirm the accounts given by the ancients of a pygmy people inhabiting the African forests. His Explorations and Ad ventures in Equatorial Africa (T 861) and A Journey to Ashango land (1867) excited much controversy. Du Chaillu's later works are concerned with travel in Sweden and Lapland. He died on April 29, 1903, at St. Petersburg (Leningrad).