_Duccio_ (Sienese: about 1260-1340). _See 566._
The departure from conventional forms, which was characteristic of
Duccio, is conspicuous in this picture. Each of the disciples has an
individual character, the entire group representing not conventional
forms but living types of men. There is a piece of symbolism in the
blind man who has already been healed which should not escape notice.
Duccio is not content to represent the bare act of healing, but insists
further upon the efficacy of the touch of Him who was the Light of
the World, by making the blind man drop the staff of which he has no
longer need. There is another piece of symbolism in the gradated
scale by which he draws attention to the respective dignities of his
characters--Christ being the tallest in the picture, the blind man the
shortest (A. H. Macmurdo in _Century Guild Hobby Horse_, 1886, p. 119).