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

Polyptych No. 28

1300-05
Tempera on wood, 143 x 242 cm
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

Definite Duccio authorship is ascribed to the Madonna of the Polyptych no. 28 in the Pinacoteca of Siena. The whole work is assigned to the production of the workshop (perhaps partly because of its very bad condition) since it reveals a considerable amount of help, valuable but extensive, in the side panels and the pinnacles.

The altarpiece in several sections bring together ten figures: the Madonna and Child, as well as several angels and saints on two levels. Originally, it was probably enclosed in a wooden frame. Mary and the Child occupy the central position. She is flanked on either side by a pair of saints, Sts Augustine and Paul at left, and Sts Peter and Dominic. Above the central panel, Christ appears, flanked by four angels.

The presence of the founder of the Order, whose rules the Dominicans followed, supports the assumption that the polyptych was probably completed for the church of San Domenico in Siena.