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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Duccio di Buoninsegna Creator Nationality: European; Southern European; Italian Creator Dates/Places: c.1255-1319 Creator Name-CRT: Duccio di Buoninsegna Title: Altarpiece: Maestà (The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain) View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1308 Creation End Date: 1311 Creation Date: between 1308-1311 Object Type: Paintings Materials and Techniques: tempera on poplar panel (cradled) Dimensions: 17 x 18 1/8 in. (43.2 x 46 cm.) AMICA Contributor: The Frick Collection Owner Location: New York, New York, USA ID Number: 27.1.35 Credit Line: Purchased Rights: http://www.frick.org Context: The Temptation of Christ is one of a series of panels illustrating the life of Christ painted for the Maestà, a huge double-sided altarpiece commissioned for the high altar of Siena Cathedral. The importance of this monumental work for the history of Sienese painting can scarcely be exaggerated. The front of the complex altarpiece, now in the Museo dell Opera del Duomo, Siena, consists of an enthroned Madonna and Child flanked by orderly rows of saints and angels, with half-length figures of Apostles above them and pinnacle scenes depicting the death and glorification of the Virgin; below is a predella narrating events from the birth and infancy of Christ. On the back of the altar were other small panels illustrating the life and Passion of Christ. For two hundred years Duccio s Maestà remained in its post of honor, influencing generations of artists in Siena, but thereafter it suffered a series of vicissitudes, and eventually partial dismemberment. Although more than fifty panels have survived, most of them in Siena, several of the smaller panels have been dispersed or lost. The original arrangement of the panels on the altarpiece and the question of what part assistants played in executing this radically innovative work are problems that may never be resolved. But Duccio himself must have been the guiding genius who designed the novel range of settings and compositions and who infused the familiar subjects with new drama and emotion. In the Frick panel, a majestically towering Christ is shown rejectingthe devil, who offers Him all the kingdoms of the world if Christ will worship him (Matthew 4:8 11). Duccio retains medieval conventions in depicting the figures as large and the spurned kingdoms as small, thus suggesting a scale of values rather than naturalistic proportions. Yet the story is presented in terms that are immediately meaningful. Christ expresses a sorrowful solemnity, and the cities in the foreground packed with turrets, domes, and crenellations vividly evoke the festive colors and crowded hill-sites of Siena. Related Document Description: New York, The Frick Collection. Art in the Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts [cat.]. Comps. C. Ryskamp, et al., 1996, p.37 (reproduced in color). New York, The Frick Collection. An Illustrated Catalogue. Vol.2, Paintings. [cat.]. 1968, pp.222-227 (reproduced). AMICA ID: TFC_.Duccio.27-1-35 AMICA Library Year: 1999 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Frick Collection, New York, 1999 AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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