DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, d("3 ( e.1260-1320 • . Italian painter, founder of the Sienese school. Little is known of his career. Ile was born in Siena, where lie passed mist of his life. Ile was in Florence in 1285, We learn from public documents of the time, and received an order to paint an altar piece for Santa _Maria Novella, which he proba bly never fulfilled. After his return to Siena he appears to have executed it "Majesty." of which there is no record. and in BlOs lie began his great work. the high altar in the Duomo. There are records showing this to have been a special order from Alariseotti, master of the work on the cathedral. When the picture was completed in 1310, the entire city celebrated a fte. It was carried. like the _Madonna of Cimabue, from his studio to the cathe dral, accompanied by a great procession of citizens and clergy in gala dress. The picture is fourteen feet long, and seven high; the faces represented are those of the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints, and bishops of the Church. On the reverse is shown in twenty-six compartments t he Pa ssion of Christ, with a background of gold. The figures
in this series are animated and the groups show dramatic feeling. Like Giotto, with whom he can be compared. Dueeio was a reformer and an innovator. Under his brush, the stiff Byzan tine figures took on grace and life, though he departed little from the traditional models. Ilk drawing was correct and dignified: he loved detail and ornament, and he tried to produce soft and pleasing color. In this work Duccio established certain characteristics which came tc be identified with the Siennese school for more than a century. The picture has since been di vided into several panels. but it remains in the cathedral. There are two Madonnas by Duccio h. the Aeadem• of Siena. and a good example of his work at Windsor, and in the National Gal lery in London, both Madonnas, and figures of saints in the Rambona collection in Cologne. Consult Crowe and Caval•aselle, .t History of Painting in Ituly, vol. ii. (London, 1S64).