THE SIENESE PAINTER DUCCIO.[1]
[The first mention of this master is in 1282—the last in 1339.]
The men who first originate remarkable inventions have at all times received considerable attention from those who write history, and this arises from the fact that the first discovery of a thing is more prized—because of the charm attached to novelty—than all the improvements that are afterwards made, although by these last it may be that the matter is brought to its ultimate perfection. Nor is this without reason, seeing that if none made a beginning, there would be no place for the gradual amelioration which brings us to the middle point, and none for those last improvements by which the thing invented attains to the perfection of its beauty. Duccio of Siena, therefore, a painter much esteemed, deservedly appropriated a large amount of the fame which fell to the lot of those who succeeded him for many years after, he being the first to commence the decoration of the pavement of the Sienese cathedral with those figures in “chiaroscuro”, wherein the artists of later times have performed the marvellous works that we now see.[2] Duccio devoted himself to the imitation of the ancient manner,[3] but very judiciously gave his figures a certain grace of outline, which he succeeded in securing notwithstanding the great difficulties presented by the branch of art now in question. Imitating paintings in “ chiaro-scuro”, Duccio designed and arranged the first commencements of the above named pavement with his own hand; he also executed a picture in the cathedral, which was at first on the high altar, but was afterwards removed to make way for the tabernacle of the Sacrament which we now see there. This picture, according to the description of Lorenzo di Bartolo Ghiberti, represented a coronation of the Virgin, partly in
- ↑ For the rectification and completion of this somewhat defective and meagre biography, see Della Valle, Lettere Sanesi, and Rumohr, Ital. Forsch. Vasari was not able to discover the masterpiece of this painter, now restored to the cathedral of Siena.— See note, page 242.
- ↑ Cicognara declares these works to equal the most precious mosaics of Greece and Rome.
- ↑ Duccio may be considered the great founder of the Sienese school, being the first who sought to profit by the bequest left to art by Guido, in his wondrous picture of 1221. —Ed. Flor. 1846.
