With respect to the 18 panels forming the pediment of this portion of the altarpiece, nothing can be added to that which has already been said. Duccio exhibited in this work alone the energy and power of a man superior to all in his immediate proximity; but, whether we consider the spirit of his composition, or his technical execution, he was not a pioneer because he remained true to old typical forms and to the technical methods that characterised both Cimabue and Deodato Orlandi. More masterly in his work than the former, he gave to Siena a title to claim and hold the position of a school of colour. At once the Giotto and Cimabue of his country, he was the most dramatic artist that Siena had produced, being rivalled in force only by the Lorenzetti and in grace only by Simone. Duccio’s career closes in 1320, after which no record of his existence has been found.
The historians of Siena note a Virgin and Child by him in St. Donato of Siena, inscribed with the words, DUCCIUS BONINSEGNE DE SENIS. However, this picture has disappeared. A fair remnant of his manner, a small altarpiece of the Crucifixion, with the Flagellation and Entombment on the wings, in the Brotherhood of the Madonna below the Spedale of Siena, remained long a worthy example of his talent. In conception, composition, forms, types, and spirit, this was a picture reminiscent of the altarpiece of the Duomo and an interesting relic of Duccio. But in October 1860, the sides were removed, the centre was re-gilted and restored; the whole was so remodernised, it became deprived of its historic character and content. Its constituent parts are now shared by various different museums across the world.
The Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena contains two pictures by Duccio. The first of which, a Virgin with Saints and attendant scenes, damaged and discoloured in many parts and obliterated in others, is still in his manner; the second, also a Virgin and Child amongst saints, in which his style and technique are equally visible. Christ in Benediction on the central upper gable exhibits the form and character of another Christ in the topmost pinnacle of a complicated altarpiece in the same style, now in the chapel to the right as one enters the Spedale of Siena. This picture bears an inscription on the lower border of the central panel as follows: DEL TEMPO DI MATTEO DI GIOVANNI. The forgery, for such it most likely is, will deceive no one who can compare the altarpiece with those of Duccio and knows that Matteo di Giovanni lived between 1420 and 1495.
If Duccio left pictures behind at Pisa, Lucca, or Pistoia they have perished; and though Tolomei notices one of his works, and others are still shown at the latter place, they may be passed over as spurious.
One of Duccio’s finest productions, a Crucifixion, Virgin and Child and attendant episodes, second only in prominence to the altarpiece of the Duomo of Siena, was in the collection of the late Prince Albert at Manchester, and can now be found in the Royal Collections in Hampton Court, near London.
Another picture of interest by Duccio is a triptych now in the National Gallery in London after having been in Pisa and in private collections in Florence. In New York, there is also a Madonna and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while other works ascribed to Duccio, including polyptychs, portable altarpieces, and stained-glass windows adorn numerous museums in Europe, as well as churches in Italy.
Contemporary of and patriarch of the Sienese school along with Duccio, is Ugolino, respected by no authentic records, and of who only one picture has an inscription, without a date. Vasari’s statement that he died in 1349, and Baldinucci’s that he died in 1339, are equally unworthy of credit. It is affirmed that one Ugolino Neri, the grandson of Guido Guarnieri of Siena, lived in Siena in 1317; but another record also immortalises an unknown painter of 1324, Ugolino di Pietro. Additionally, copious evidence of the existence of one Ugolino Veri, a goldsmith, is in the Sienese records of 1329-1357. The latter is clearly not the man whose life Vasari has written, and Milanesi’s guess, that Ugolino Neri is the painter alluded to by the Aretine, is but a guess. Nor, strange to relate, is it principally in Siena that we must seek the vestiges of an artist who not only followed the old style like Duccio, but who exaggerated it even more than that master. It is in Florence that Ugolino laboured most and there in which his only inscribed picture occupied a place in the church of St. Croce, and that a number of works in his peculiar manner are preserved. Ugolino, during his stay in Florence, was employed by the Franciscans of St. Croce to paint a picture for the high altar of the church, and as Arnolfo did not begin the edifice until 1294, we may assume that Ugolino’s work was subsequent to that date. Again, as there is reason to believe that Ugolino executed a Madonna on a pilaster of Orsanmichele, as this building was erected by Arnolfo in 1284, and the so-called miracles of that Virgin took place in 1291, some idea as to the period in which Ugolino painted in Florence can be formed.
The altarpiece of St. Croce was a truly Sienese production in form, with the Virgin and Child Enthroned in the centre, saints and apostles in higher courses, scenes from the Passion on the pediment, and the whole work signed UGOLINO DE SENIS ME PINXIT. Like most pictures of that time, Ugolino’s altarpiece was withdrawn from its place of honour, and stowed away. It remained unheeded for centuries in the dormitory of the convent, where Delia Valle saw it, and, having been sold for a song, found its way in fragments to the Ottley collection, which now constitute some of the eleven panels in the National Gallery in London. Others can also be found in the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Louvre, and in the Church of Misericordia in San Casciano, Italy. In these, a colour and technical execution like those of Duccio, Simone, and other Sienese, may be traced. The figures are long and bony, the movements more vehement and exaggerated than those of Duccio.
A crucifix at the Servi of Siena, in which Christ has seven feet of stature, is assigned to Stefano Sassetta, a painter of the fifteenth century. It is true, the manner approaches that of Sassetta, yet the painting seems to be of an older time and of a style such as that found in Ugolino.
To him may be assigned the repainted heads of the Virgin and Child by Guido in St. Domenico of Siena; the technical style of the restored parts being more reminiscent of his comparative adherence to old methods than of Duccio.
A damaged altarpiece in the Sienese form, with the Virgin and Child Enthroned between four saints, Christ and saints in the gable points, the Ecce Homo and saints in the pediment, is preserved in the sacristy of St. Croce in Florence, and is like one of his works.