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

Calling of Peter and Andrew (scene 4)

1308-11
Tempera on wood, 44 x 46 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

This panel is on the back predella of the Maestà.

Although adhering to the iconographic schemes of Byzantine and local art (clearly related to the scene on the same subject in the thirteenth-century St Peter Dossal in the Pinacoteca at Siena) it pays greater attention to the overall composition. The distribution of space is regular and the surroundings simple; the figures are felicitously placed between the transparency of the sea and the gold of the sky.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):
Guillaume Dufay: Aurea luce, hymn for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul