Maesta 1

Maesta
Tempera and gold on panel,
370x450 cm (front), 211x426 cm (back) Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena.

The Maesta, painted for the high altar of Siena Cathedral, is the only work of Duccio to bear his signature, it was executed between 1308 and 1311. Painted on both sides, the work originally had a complex structure, which included a predella with figured compartments, a crowning section with cusps and pinnacles and a lavish frame in the Gothic style. The front depicted a complex Marian theme, dominated at the center by the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints (including the four patron saints of Siena, Ansanus, Sabinus, Crescentius and Victor, kneeling in the foreground) and ten Apostles set inside small arches. The predella depicted Scenes from the Life of the Virgin and Scenes from the Childhood of Christ, alternating with figures of Prophets. On the cusps were scenes representing the Last Days of Mary's Life. The upper part has not survived, but may have been painted with the Assumption and the Coronation of Mary.