Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)
SCHMIDT, VICTOR M.: A Duccesque Fragment of the Coronation of the Virgin
cathedral dedicated to the Virgin. But this is only an assumption. It has been pointed out that Ghiberti, in his Commentarii, calls the front part of the Maestà a coronation, but this testimony is ambiguous. 13 The main image is the Virgin and Child enthroned between angels and saints. Even if there was an image of the Coronation above it. it remains strange that Ghiberti wished to single out this rather than the principal image. Perhaps he was not referring to a standard image of the Coronation at all. From two inventories, dating from 1423 and 1435 respectively, it is known that by this time the altarpiece was embellished with, among other things, canopies and angel figures suspended from above. 14 There is a possibility that this set-up suggested to Ghiberti some sort of «incoronazione di Nostra Donna». Recently William Tronzo argued that there were no scenes of the Virgin's glorification on top of the Maestà at all, because such images were already present in the large stained-glass oculus of the cathedral's apse; from bottom to top the window shows the Entombment, the Assumption and the Coronation. As an alternative Tronzo suggests that the Maestà had an intentionally empty center in the middle, perhaps completed by a gable above the Virgin enthroned. 15 While Tronzo's observation that the iconography of the Maestà should be seen in relation to the other imagery in the cathedral is certainly valid, his suggestion about the original shape of the Maestà is not. He forgets that the rear side of the Maestà was painted as well. The missing imagery from the front side may have been supplied by the stained-glass window, but there is no such alternative for the Christological scenes on the reverse. Even more important, an altarpiece without an emphasized center would have been very peculiar indeed. Even if the central image of the enthroned Virgin was crowned by some sort of gable, one would expect this part to protrude, in which case it had to have an image of some kind. An image of glorification would still be the best suggestion. White's reconstruction of the Maestà is nowadays accepted as the most thorough, although not every part of it, and particularly his proposal for the superstructure, has met with general consent. The principal tenet of White's reconstruction is that the entire altarpiece was laid out according to a proportional system known in the Middle Ages but only published by Matthias Roriczer in his Puechlein der Fialen Gerechtigkeit (Regensburg, 1486). As to the superstructure of the front, White placed the six extant scenes from the Virgin's Last Days above the half-length figures of the apostles to the left and right, thus leaving room for the central part, which he reconstructed as a rather high panel divided into two horizontal compartments (fig. 16). Supposedly the Assumption was in the lower part, the Coronation in the upper part. The flow of the 13 «Fu in Siena ancora Duccio, el quale fú nobilissimo, tenne la maniera greca; c di sua mano la tavola maggiore del duomo di Siena; c nella parte dinanzi la incoronazione di Nostra Donna e nella parte di dietro el testamento nuovo.» Lorenzo Ghiberti, / commentarii (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, H. 1. 333), ed. Bartoli. L., Florence 1998, 90. 14 Brandi, op. cit. (Note 2) 145-146; Stubblcbine, op. cit. (Note 1) I. 34-35; van der Ploeg, K., Art, architecture and liturgy. Siena Cathedral in the Middle Ages, Groningen 1993. 1 13 -115. 15 Tronzo, W., Between icon and the monumental decoration of a church: notes on Duccio's Maestà and the definition of the altarpiece. in Icon: Jour essays, Washington DG. Baltimore 1988, 36—47. For the stained-glass window, sec also Carli, L.. Vetrata duecesca, Florence 1946.
