Duccio

Duccio di Buoninsegna worked in Siena through the late 13th and early 14th centuries, hired by government and church alike to fill altarpieces and public commissions across Italy. He painted in a moment when the Byzantine icon still held sway, but he softened its severity, bringing a tenderness and narrative flow that hadn't been seen before. That fusion became the foundation of the Sienese school and the broader Trecento Gothic style—a counterweight to what was emerging in Florence. He died around 1318 or 1319, leaving behind a body of work that Middle Ages scholarship still ranks among the g…