A Reappraisal of the Boston Museum's Duccio

* I should like to express my gratitude to Professor Millard Meiss for his invaluable encouragement and comments.

Abstract

Ever since Weigelt laid the foundation for our study and enjoyment of the art of Duccio, scholars have been periodically tempted by the challenge of defining the members of his largely anonymous circle. Even greater skill and patience than have yet been applied will be required to solve the important problems that continue to harass connoisseurs. We know that assistants worked on the great Maestà,¹ installed in the Duomo in 1311 and now in the adjacent museum, and yet we cannot connect them with the only pupils mentioned in the documents, Ugolino di Nerio and Segna di Buonaventura.² We have yet to assess the role of artists whose shadowy achievement must be identified by references, for instance, to the Maestro di Badia a Isola.³ A major product of Ducciesque inspiration, the exquisite Maestà at Massa Marittima,⁴ offers provocative mysteries of style, while scores of lesser works, their secrets locked within, wait like unclaimed baggage in the storerooms of art history.