Madone de Crevole

This is one of the earliest paintings we have by Duccio, made around 1283 for a country church at Crevole, in the hills south of Siena. The type was old and fixed, a Greek formula in which the Virgin points to the Christ child as the way to salvation, repeated across the Byzantine world for centuries on gold grounds like this one. Duccio keeps the gold and the formula but loosens them. The child reaches up to touch his mother's veil, a small human gesture, and her face carries a quiet sadness, as if she already knows what lies ahead for him. Two angels lean in at the top corners. The panel was later carried the few miles from that country parish into Siena, where it now hangs in the cathedral museum.