_Duccio_ (Sienese: about 1260-1340). _See 566._
This picture shows us the side of Duccio on which the early School of
Siena still adhered to the traditions of Byzantine art. For instance,
the Greek method of symbolising light on drapery is seen in the gold
lines of Mary's dress, a decorative method which Duccio was the last to
use. So, too, in the gold background, which was universal in Byzantine
mosaics. This survival may be seen in all the early Sienese pictures
in the Gallery. In 1188, for instance, all the landscape background is
gold; so in 1140 are all the spaces between the houses; whilst 1113
resembles a brilliant mosaic with gold for its groundwork.
We have here the earliest representation in our Gallery of one of
the most frequent subjects in mediæval art, and a few remarks on its
development may be interesting. The subjects which artists had at their
disposal in those days were prescribed to them by religious uses and
religious conventions. Not in novelty of subject, but in individuality
of treatment, was scope for the artist's ingenuity to be found. Hence
a comparison of pictures of the same subject by different artists and
different schools affords a suggestive study in the evolution of art.
One may trace by such comparisons something of the same process of
"descent with modification" that Darwin has exhibited in the case of
fish and insect, fern and flower.[222] Thus we may compare the present
picture--the earliest and simplest "Annunciation" in our Gallery--with
Crivelli's (739), which is the most ornate, and which was painted
200 years later. Two pictures of the same subject could hardly be
more unlike. Duccio's is severe and simple; Crivelli's, florid and
picturesque. The one is rigidly confined to the main matter in hand;
the other is crowded from corner to corner with dainty detail and
lively incident. Halfway, as it were, between the two stands Lippi's
"Annunciation" (666); there also there is much lovely detail, but we
see in a moment that "in the Florentine, the detail is there for the
sake of the picture; in the Venetian, the picture is there for the
sake of the detail." Crivelli's picture shows us the furthest point
of departure from the original type. Yet observe how much of the
original survives. First, and this point is absolutely fixed in all
mediæval representations of the subject, the angel Gabriel occupies
the left-hand side, and the Blessed Virgin the right-hand side of the
picture. Often (as in Giotto's frescoes in the Arena at Padua) the
subject is divided into two halves by the intervention of the choir
arch. In Italy, the Annunciation was always the subject employed for
the decoration of the main entrance of church. For this purpose, the
convenient architectural arrangement was to place a relief of the angel
on one side, a relief of the Madonna on the other, and the doorway
between them.[223] Similarly inside, the Annunciation was constantly
employed to decorate the blank space beside an archway, and hence
arose the custom of dividing the treatment. We may see examples in our
Gallery in the wings (interior side) of the "Coronation" by Justus
of Padua (701), and in the terminal panels of Landini's altar-piece
(580A). To this peculiarity is perhaps due the wall, barrier, or column
which so often marks off the figure of the Virgin from that of the
angel. We find it here in the Duccio; also in Fra Angelico's picture
(1406), and again in Crivelli's. Sometimes, however, there is no
such division. See, for instance, Lippi's picture (666), and Manni's
(1104). There is a reason for this difference. Lippi's, no doubt, was
painted to fill the space over a doorway; Manni's was the apex of an
altar-piece. The decorative function of the pictures governed their
composition. Returning to the Duccio, we may notice as a third and
nearly constant element, the angel's lilies--Annunciation lilies, as
the Italians call them. Sometimes they are in a vase as here; sometimes
(as in the Crivelli), the angel bears a lily in his hand. Next, it
is noticeable that the action almost invariably takes place in a
loggia--an arcade or cloister. The lectern or _prie-dieu_, which in
Crivelli's picture and in very many others of the subject stands beside
the Madonna, is a refinement on the earliest type as seen in Duccio and
Fra Angelico. But whether with lectern or without, the Virgin is always
represented with a book engaged in her devotions. Visitors who desire
to trace the evolution of this subject should conclude their studies at
the Tate Gallery, where, in Rossetti's "Ecce Ancilla Domini" and Mr.
Hacker's "Annunciation," modern versions of the old subject are given.
Rossetti's is one of the most imaginative in the whole range of art
(see Ruskin's analysis cited in vol. ii. of this handbook, No. 1210).