The Rucellai Madonna, which Vasari wrongly attributed to Cimabue, was commissioned in 1285 by the Company of Laudesi, a Domincan lay confraternity devoted to charity and who emphasized devotion to the Virgin. The artist named in the contract is Duccio di Buoninsegna, the most sigificant Sienese painter of the day, and the painting was originally placed in the leading Domincan church in Florence, Santa Maria Novella. It was later transferred to the Rucellai Chapel. The richness of its colors and the variety of elegant materials make Duccio's painting a fitting expression of the Laudesi's devotion to Mary.
Compared with Cimabue's Enthroned Madonna (see post Cimabue ) Duccio's reveals a new emphasis on three-dimensional form, both in the positioning of the throne and in the use of chiaroscuro (Italian for light-dark, it's the gradual shading used to create 3-D forms). Duccio's throne, in contrast to Cimabue's, stands on a horizontal surface. The Christ child seems to sit firmly on Mary's lap, who has raised her left leg to support his weight. Look at her right knee; the way her robe drapes clearly shows that there is a body beneath the cloth. Throughout the painting there is an interplay of weight, pose, and gesture that affects the physical materiality of the drapery in a new way. In other words, this is a much more naturalistic painting than Cimabue's.
Not everything in it is naturalistic, however. The four angels on the sides of the throne kneel in the air, floating on nothing. In this painting Duccio conflated earthly time and space with spiritual timelessness and weightlessness. Mary looks out of the painting, down to the viewer and human time and space, while the stars on her robe and the throne and the adoration of angels identify her as the Queen of Heaven.
The thirty medallions, a Byzantine feature, in the picture's frame depict figures from the Old and New Testaments and saints, including Peter Martyr, the founder of the Laudesi. The frame is a kind of timeline spanning the days of Abraham right up to the thirteenth century. Today, you can see this beautiful painting at the Uffizi in Florence.
