Explore the Description and style of this artwork.
The table depicts the Madonna with her head reclined in three quarters and a Child who stretches his right arm to tenderly touch his mother's veil. Two small angels appear in the upper corners of the table. The setting is that of the Madonna Odigitria of the Byzantine tradition, with the variant of the tender gesture of the son caressing his mother, whose sad expression is due to the premonition of the destiny of sacrifice and death of Jesus, symbolized by the apparition of angels. The panel is very similar, in general setting, to the Madonna di Castelfiorentino exhibited in the Museum of Santa Verdiana in Castelfiorentino (Florence) and attributed to Cimabue. This similarity supports the theory, also formulated on the basis of other much more solid evidence, that the young Duccio of these years was a pupil of the older Cimabue.
Beyond this similarity, the faces of the Madonna and Child are much more delicate and humanized in Duccio's table. Maria's face is more elongated and her eyes are closer to each other, but it is also the greater pictorial delicacy that makes the difference (compare the dimples above the mouth and the backs of the two noses). The face of Jesus is also softer and less angular, with a characteristic potato chip nose. The veiled transparency of his robe and the intimate gesture with his right arm towards his mother, very different from the rude fussing of Cimabue's, contribute to making his figure more delicate. These perceptible differences show the progressive detachment of Duccio's style from that of Cimabue, a detachment that appeared almost imperceptible in the previous Gualino Madonna (1280-1283) of a decidedly Cimabuesque influence A further detachment from the master Cimabue will take place with the subsequent Rucellai Madonna (1285) where Duccio will introduce Gothic elements that will never characterize Cimabue's work.
Florence Gualino Madonna Cimabue Duccio Odigitria Madonna di Castelfiorentino Museum of Santa Verdiana Rucellai Madonna Castelfiorentino