chapter VI

. Andreas Aubert, _Cimabue_, p. 138 ff., and Curt Weigelt, _Duccio_, both agree that the Rucellai Madonna is the picture called for by the contract of 1285, hence is by Duccio. Aside from many stylistic similarities to Duccio’s early Madonna with Franciscans in the Siena Academy, the exquisitely drawn bare feet of the Angels in the Rucellai Madonna amount almost to a signature for Siena’s greatest painter. H. Thode and O. Sirén hold that a picture designed and begun by Duccio was finished by Cimabue, _Toskanische Maler_, pp. 308–9, and note 41 to latter page. The hypothesis that Duccio was strongly influenced by Cimabue in this work seems simpler.

Footnote 19:

The contract is worth quoting in part from G. Fontana, _Due documenti inediti riguardanti Cimabue_, Pisa, 1878; it is reprinted in Strzygowski, _Cimabue und Rom_, Wien, 1888. The papers were recovered from a grocer who was about to use them for wrappers.

“Which picture of the Majesty of Divine and Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Apostles and other saints is to be made in columns and in the predella and [main] spaces of the picture good and pure florin gold shall be used; the other pictures which are to be made in the aforesaid panel above the columns in tabernacles, gables, and frames shall be made ... of good silver gilt.”

The picture apparently was a polyptych of three, five, or seven panels with columns and round arches, with an upper order of gables and tabernacles. It seems to have been the first well-peopled Madonna in Majesty, and it probably served as Duccio’s exemplar. Cimabue died before finishing it, but since in Nov. 1302 he received a large installment of 40 Pisan _lire_, he must at least have fully drawn the composition on the panel.

Footnote 20:

_Simone Martini._ See the standard work by Raimond van Marle, _Simone Martini_, Strasbourg, 1920.

There is considerable difference among critics in dating these frescoes, and no objective evidence. The early date, 1322–25, suggested by Venturi and Van Marle, is confirmed by the stylistic character of the work. It lacks the calligraphic, linear formulas which abound in Simone’s works after 1330. The early date also agrees with the general probabilities of the course of events in the decoration of the Lower Church at Assisi.

Footnote 21:

Frey’s ed. Berlin, 1886, p. 42.

Footnote 22:

The contract for this altar-piece is translated in the illustrations to