Description
This angel, attributed to Duccio or his workshop, once formed part of the upper pinnacles of the Maestà for Siena Cathedral. Its serene face, dark wings threaded with gold and pink and green garments reveal the elegance of Sienese painting. Made between 1308 and 1311, the small panel is now in the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in the United States. Whether Duccio himself or one of his assistants executed it remains a matter of attribution.
A visitor examining the panel in a museum can appreciate the punched halo and individual feathers at close range. A worshipper seeing it high above an altar would have noticed chiefly its outline and glittering surface. This difference matters: the modern museum encourages intimate scrutiny of technique, whereas the original altarpiece gathered numerous images into a single liturgical presence visible from the nave.
