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

Temptation on the Temple (scene 2)

1308-11
Tempera on wood, 48 x 50 cm
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

This panel is on the back predella of the Maestà.

The panels illustrating the second and third temptations of Christ (the first one, in the wilderness, is thought to have been on the smaller side, imagining the predella as a three-dimensional structure) display considerable progress in the composition and arrangement of space. The tiled floor and the pillars, visible in the interior of the building in the Temptation on the Temple, are rendered successfully in perspective; they accompany the polygonal form of the building, without breaking up its rigorous geometry.