Duccio di Buoninsegna was probably born in Siena around the middle of the thirteenth century. His exact birth date is unknown, and relatively little is known about his family or artistic training.
He is first documented as a painter in Siena in 1278, when the city government paid him to decorate wooden chests used for official documents. Later records show that he continued to work primarily in Siena.
Duccio developed within the established traditions of Sienese and Byzantine painting. His early work also reveals connections with the art of Cimabue and with developments taking place elsewhere in central Italy.
In 1285 a Florentine confraternity commissioned Duccio to create a large image of the Virgin and Child for the church of Santa Maria Novella. The painting is now generally known as the Rucellai Madonna.
Duccio also worked in media beyond conventional panel painting. During the late 1280s he designed the great circular stained-glass window for Siena Cathedral. Its imagery includes scenes associated with the Virgin Mary and figures of saints.
Over the following decades Duccio developed a distinctive style characterized by graceful line, rich color, patterned surfaces, and increasingly convincing human relationships.
His figures retain much of the solemnity of Byzantine religious imagery, but they also communicate through glances, gestures, movement, and physical contact. These qualities became especially important in his narrative paintings.
Duccio's greatest commission came from Siena Cathedral. Around 1308 he began work on the enormous double-sided altarpiece known as the Maestà.
The front was dominated by an enthroned Virgin and Christ Child surrounded by saints and angels. Smaller panels presented episodes associated with the infancy of Jesus and other religious figures.
The reverse contained an extensive cycle devoted to the ministry and Passion of Christ. Individual scenes presented events from the Gospels in chronological and theological relationship with one another.
The completed altarpiece was carried through Siena in a public procession to the cathedral in June 1311. Contemporary records describe the occasion as an important civic as well as religious celebration.
The Maestà required the assistance of a substantial workshop. Although Duccio directed the project and established its overall design, assistants participated in its execution.
The altarpiece remained in Siena Cathedral for centuries. It was eventually dismantled, and some of its smaller panels were separated and dispersed. Portions are now held by museums in several countries.
Duccio died in Siena in 1318 or 1319. His workshop and artistic example profoundly influenced later Sienese painters and helped establish a distinctive tradition that developed alongside the more strongly modeled and spatially monumental art associated with Giotto and Florence.