Duccio, The Rucellai Madonna, 1285-86 Video Lecture - Humanities/Arts

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SPEAKER 1: You know, the
Florentines get all the credit.
And it's important to
remember that there
was another major city in the
1300s that was also in Tuscany.
It was another
independent republic,
and this is the
Republic of Siena,
with the capital city of Siena.
And there was an enormously
important and influential
painter there whose
name was Duccio,
and so let's look at one of
his most important paintings,
the Rucellai Madonna.
SPEAKER 2: We're looking at
a painting of the Madonna
holding the Christ
Child surrounded
by three angels on either
side, and 12 feet high,
so a very large
painting of the Madonna.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah,
it's a huge painting.
In fact, the Virgin Mary
herself is twice the height,
if not larger,
than a human being.
It's an altarpiece
that's meant to be
seen at a great distance
within a huge church.
SPEAKER 2: And there's so
many decorative patterns here,
on the throne.
In the spaces in between the
posts that make up the throne,
we see reds and blues.
And then we've got more
patterning in the drapery
behind the throne.
SPEAKER 1: The characteristics
that you're referencing
are seen by our historians
to be the definition
of Sienese art of this time,
highly decorative, highly
patterned, and with a subtlety
of color that we don't
often seen in the Florentine.
SPEAKER 2: First of
all, Mary's whole body
is in this lovely
ultramarine blue,
which was a very
expensive paint.
But the angels, you see
purples, and greens,
and pinks, and blues.
SPEAKER 1: And they're
subtle and prismatic in a way
that we don't so much
see in the flatter
colors of the Florentine style.
SPEAKER 2: It's hard to see that
Mary's sitting in her throne.
The throne itself is so flat.
SPEAKER 1: It's
almost a background
against which she's seen.
There's so much detail
and so much decorative
patterning, in the throne
especially and in the cloth
that drapes the throne, that
its structure gets lost,
because pattern, of course, does
emphasize the two dimensional.
You know, when I look at
Sienese art, and especially
the Rucellai Madonna,
I tend to think
of an artist who is so
in love with the ability
to create beauty that
pattern and form tend
to trump the overall
representation and the emphasis
on any kind of naturalism
or any physicality.
For instance, look at the
Byzantine-influenced hands
of Mary.
Look how long those fingers are.
It's almost as if
the artist has gotten
lost in the length
of those fingers
as they wrap around
Christ's waist.
SPEAKER 2: They're very
beautiful, those hands.
I'm thinking also about
the amount of gold here.
We see the disappearance
of all of that gold
through the 1300s
into the 1400s.
Here, the painting's
value is largely
in that ultramarine paint--
that was expensive--
and in the use of gold.
And what happens
during the Renaissance
is that the artist
himself is valued,
the artist's skill
becomes more valued.
Not that Duccio's
skill wasn't valued,
but the value was also
heavily in the materials that
were used that were often
dictated by the patron.
SPEAKER 1: Now, the ultramarine
blue that you're referencing
was actually made of the
semi-precious stone lapis
lazuli.
And during the
Renaissance, the only mines
that were available for lapis
were in Afghanistan, still
a remote place for us
in the 21st century.
One can only imagine how
exotic and rare and difficult
importing from Afghanistan
would have been in the 1200s.
SPEAKER 2: And here we
have an enormous quantity
of that color being used.
SPEAKER 1: So this is, in
some ways, ostentatious.
In some ways, this
is a painting that
is broadcasting its value,
its wealth, its importance.
What's so interesting
is this was
a commission for the
main altar in Santa Maria
Novella in Florence, although
it's by a Sienese artist.
And Santa Maria Novella is
the main Dominican church,
that is, one of the
mendicant orders,
this order of
begging monks, that
had renounced
worldly possessions.
So there's this interesting
kind of tension.
We mentioned that this is
called the Rucellai Madonna,
and that's a later title.
This painting was
later moved away
from the main altar
in Santa Maria Novella
and into the
Rucellai Chapel, that
is, the private chapel
that was controlled
by the Florentine
family, the Rucellai.
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