Focus on this artwork and analyze the Description and influences.
Comparing the compact size of this work of 11×81⁄8 in. to larger, more illustrious altarpieces and large scale frescoes, the Madonna and Child is understood to be an intimate, devotional image.  Some evocations of this understanding come from the burnt edges on the bottom of the original engaged frame caused by burning candles that likely would have sat just beneath.  Looking past the abrupt simplicity of the image, one can begin to understand the changes Duccio was applying to the depiction of religious figures in painting during the early 14th century.  Duccio followed other innovative Italian artists of the time like Giotto, both of whom strove to move beyond the purely iconic Byzantine and Italo-Byzantine canon and attempted to create a more tangible connection between the viewer and the objects in the painting.  For example, the parapet that sits at the bottom of the painting works as a visual enticement for the viewer to look past and into the moment that is captured between the Virgin and Christ Child.  At the same time, the parapet also acts as a barrier between the vernacular world and the sacred.
Madonna Virgin parapet Duccio Christ Child altarpieces Italo-Byzantine frescoes Giotto Byzantine Madonna and Child