Duccio di Buoninsegna was one of the most influential Sienese artists of his time. He stands in relation to the Sienese School as Giotto does to the Florentine School.
Duccio just didn't have the powerful naturalism that made the art of Giotto so revolutionary in western tradition. Rather, Duccio sums up the beauty of centuries of Byzantine tradition and infuses it with a breath of the new humanity.
He worked mostly with pigment and egg tempera and like most of his contemporaries he painted religious subject matters. He has influenced Simone Martini and the brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, among others.
His works include the Rucellai Madonna (1285) for Santa Maria Novella (now in the Uffizi) and the fabled Maestą (1308-11), his masterpiece, for Siena's cathedral. The centre of the Maesta depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned and surrounded by angels and saints.
The Stoclet Madonna, painted on a wooden panel around the year 1300, was purchased in November 2004 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for an estimated sum of 45 million USD, the most expensive purchase ever made by the museum.
