On this day, the famous altarpiece, ‘Maestà of Duccio‘, commissioned by the city of Siena in Tuscany in 1308, was installed in the city’s cathedral after a procession of the work in a loop around the city. The work was not only large (the central panel was 2.13 m by 3.96 m), but it had to be painted on both sides since it could be seen from all directions when installed on the main altar at the centre of the sanctuary. The front panels depict a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets, while the reverse shows scenes of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in forty-three small panels. The altarpiece set Italian painting on a course towards more direct representations of reality, as developed during the early Italian Renaissance.
The Maestà of Duccio is Installed in Siena Cathedral
9th June 1311