COMPARATIVE

STUDY OF
MADONNA
ENTHRONE

MADONNA
ENTHRONE
BY CIMABUE

DETAIL FROM MADONNA ENTHRONED WITH EIGHT

ANGELS AND FOUR PROPHETS

The

picture originally
stood on the high altar of
Santa Trinit church in
Florence.
The iconography is
frequent in medieval
painting and represents
the Madonna enthroned
with Child and angels, a
pattern commonly said
Maest as shows the
Virgin as Queen of
Paradise.
In the lower part are
four biblical figures,
symbolizing foundations
of Christ's kingdom: the

Maest,12801285,UffiziGallery,Florence

MADONNA
ENTHRONE
BY GIOTTO

Madonna Enthroned, also known as

theOgnissanti Madonna, is a painting by the
Italian late medieval artistGiotto di Bondone,
housed in the Uffizi GalleryofFlorence, Italy.
It is often celebrated as the first painting of the
Renaissancedue to its newfound naturalism
and escape from the constraints ofGothic art.
It is generally dated to around 1310.
An earlier manuscript document of 1418 also
attributes the painting to Giotto, but it is
Ghiberti's autobiography that provides the
most solid evidence.

Ognissanti Madonna
Artist

Giotto

Year

c. 1310

Type

Tempera
on panel

Dimensions

325cm
204cm
(128in
80in)

Location

Uffizi Galle
ry
, Florence

In both the gold coloring used throughout

the artwork and the flattened gold
background, Giotto's art continued the
traditional Italo-Byzantine style so popular in
the proto-Renaissance time period.
Giotto's figures however escape the bounds
of Byzantine art. His figures are weighty and
are reminiscent of three-dimensional
sculptures, such as that in classical Roman
sculpture.
The Madonna's intricately decorated throne,
which itself is an Italian Gothic design, has a
very specific use of colored marble as a

MADONNA
ENTHRONE
BY DUCCIO

Artist

Duccio di Buoninsegna

Year

13081311

Type

Tempera and gold on wood

Dimensions

213cm 396cm (84in 156in)

Location

Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del

Duomo
,Siena

TheMaest, orMaest of Ducciois an

altarpiececomposed of many individual
paintings commissioned by the city ofSiena
in 1308 from the artistDuccio di
Buoninsegna.
The front panels make up a large enthroned
Madonna and Childwith saints and angels,
and apredellaof theChildhood of Christwith
prophets.
Duccio'sMaestset Italian painting on a
course leading away from the hieratic
representations ofByzantine arttowards
more direct presentations of reality.
The painting was installed in the