DUCCIO di Buoninsegna
(b. ca. 1255, Siena, d. 1319, Siena)

Announcement of Death to the Virgin (detail)

1308-11
Tempera on wood
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

The angel, his robe light and fluttering, offers the palm branch to the Virgin - the palma mortis is present in all the episodes as an emblem of death and a symbol of paradise to come.