Duccio (1278-1319) The Virgin and Child, 1290-1300, Tempera on poplar wood.
In 2004, the then curator of European painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Keith Christiansen, convinced the director, Philippe de Montebello, to pay $45 million dollars for this portrait of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child by Duccio, a Sienese painter from Italy. Philippe told me he looked at the picture for three days then finally agreed to the purchase and fundraising required to acquire same. He had been convinced that it would lead someday to an exhibition that would reunite works of art from the 14th century. The massive installation in the artwork known as the Maesta in the cathedral of Siena was sadly dismantled in 1771 as the wooden infrastructure which held this immense work of art together was splitting from the strain of support for 400 years.
The Maesta, Siena Cathedral. 1308-1311.
The curatorial teams from the Metropolitan Museum and National Gallery of London have gathered loans of over 100 objects to recreate the sense of Siena as the city north of Rome and south of Florence where the Virgin Mary was the patron saint who guarded the population from political war and disease until the black plague killed half of its population in seven months in 1350.
Art historians proclaim that the artists who painted in this generation of what is called the Early Renaissance were influenced by objects flowing through Italy from the east and west with carpets, textiles, illustrated manuscripts, ivory carvings, and works in gold all showed their beauty in the marketplace. When the Maesta was dedicated by the local clergy, the celebration gathered the entire city of Siena around its vast public square where they honored the Virgin thereafter with an annual horse race known as the Pallio. We witnessed same as a family in 1988 when we rented a small house nearby and had to cling to our four children as the wild horses raced around the Piazzo Publico as the crowd cheered and then prayed for the Virgin and her son Jesus.
The Pallio , Siena town square.
Below is a link to the You Tube video produced by the Met staff in which the designer of the installation explains that they tried to create a religious holy atmosphere arranging the works of art such that the visitor could feel the weight of the Maesta works and all the assembled objects that the Sienese artists would have seen in the Cathedral when working there. Italy at this time was gifted with patrons and clergy who fostered the arts as a devotional practice before the rise of international banking and commerce in the following centuries led by the Medici and their peers. The many images of the Virgin Mary and Holy Child reveal how the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament provided plenty of stories and events in the life of Christ which convey emotional intensity, bold courage, and tragic results with his death and crucifixion. The curators tell of how the artists would work from the top down on these massive installations so that they would not create damage to the works below.
Installation at the Met Museum.
Simone Martini (1284-1344) Christ Discovered in the Temple, 1342. Tempera on panel.
In 1550 a man named Giorgio Vasari published a book on the Lives of the Artists which documented how each one arrived at various clerical commissions and became skilled artisans working within the confines of church doctrine which allowed a wide range of styles and techniques in the creation of these allegories. Works such as this ivory or the golden chalice inspired painters to use bright colors and forms to express their works using the Christian motifs. It was not until many years later that private patronage allowed personal portraits like the Mona Lisa of 1503 where a woman was allowed to gaze at the audience with a smile that previously was considered sacrilegious and too engaging.
Ivory of Virgin and Child. 1290-1300. Museo del Tesoro, Assisi, Italy.
Golden Goblet. Chalice of Tondino de Guerrino, 1341-2. Gilded silver and enamel.
The successor to Keith Christiansen, Stephen Wolohojian, worked with the National Gallery of London staff and many other specialists in this field to assemble the exhibition and fabulous catalog for the show. The brilliance of the painting on gold leaf and intricate details in the ivories and gold works makes this a once in a lifetime experience to see such major works of art in a lovely assemblage. This show speaks to you with brilliant emotional intensity, as noted in the New York Times by its reviewer, Holland Cotter on October 3, 2024.
Duccio, Triptych with Virgin and Child, Saint Dominic and Saint Aurea, and Patriarchs and Prophets, 1312-15. Tempera on panel, National Gallery of London.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
October 13, 2024 to January 26, 2025
March 8, 2024 to June 22, 2025
Sources Consulted:
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350. Exhibition Catalog, Yale University Press, 2024.
You Tube: Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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