Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)

SCHMIDT, VICTOR M.: A Duccesque Fragment of the Coronation of the Virgin

narrative from left to right would have been interrupted but counterbalanced by the extra large size of Assumption and Coronation with the Redeemer in top.

16 Apart from the fact that the dimensions thus reconstructed fall within the Roriczer system, there is no «hard évidence» that the central part was that high.

17 Moreover, in White's reconstruction, the lower scene would have had a broad format, whereas its supposed subject, the Assumption, would seem to require a high format. Subsequent modifications of White's reconstruction, included, rightly I think, a reduction of the size of the central part (fig. 17). As a consequence, the hypothesis that the Assumption, the Coronation and the Redeemer were all represented in the central part becomes difficult to support. Thus, Christa Gardner von Teuffel removed the Redeemer altogether and suggested that the Assumption was represented in the top part, a solution that would invert the logical order of Assumption and Coronation.

18 It should be pointed out, however, that from a theological point of view, the Assumption and the Coronation are almost mutually exclusive. There is in principle no direct need for the representations of both. To conclude, the question whether and where the Coronation of the Virgin was shown in the front side of the Maestà is directly related to problems of the reconstruction of the altarpiece. If the Coronation was represented at all, virtually the only possible location must have been directly above the enthroned Virgin. Thus posed, the problem is brought down to a simple question: would the Budapest Coronation fragment in its original size have fit? Reconstruction of the fragment In order to answer this question, I have tried to reconstruct the fragment to its approximate original size by drawing on other Coronations from Duccio's immediate circle. There is, of course, the large stained-glass oculus for Siena Cathedral, but closer in date are two panels, which can be dated within a decade after the completion of the Maestà. The first is tabernacle no. 35 in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, which Miklós Boskovits even attributed to Duccio himself (fig. 19). The central part shows below the Virgin and Child enthroned between St Paul and St Peter, who presents a crowned supplicant; above is the Coronation of the Virgin between the two Sts John.

19 The second 16 White. Measurement., op. cit. (Note 12) esp. 564-567; White, Duccio... op. cit. (Note 12) 86-88, 201-208. For the structure of the Maestà, see now also Bomford, D. - Dunkerton, J. - Gordon, D. - Roy, A., Art in the making. Italian painting before 1400, London 1990, 72-78. 17 As was pointed out first by Maginnis, H. B. J., The literature of Sienese Trecento painting, 19451975, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 40 (1977) 276-309, esp. 280. 18 Gardner von Teuffel, G., The buttressed altarpiece. A forgotten aspect of Tuscan fourteenth century altarpiece design, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 21 (1979) 21-65, esp. 36. Gardner von Teuffel's modifications were largely accepted by Boskovits, M., The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Early Italian painting. 1290-1470. London 1990, 73; Bellosi, L., Duccio. La Maestà, Milan 1998, 22, accepts the reduced central part, where he locates the Assumption and Coronation, but retains the Redeemer pinnacle on top. 19 Stubblebine, op. cit. (Note 1) I, 104-105; Boskovits, M., Il gotico senese rivisitato: proposte e commenti su una mostra, Arte cristiana 71 (1983) 259-276, esp. 262-263; Torriti, P., La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. I dipinti, Genoa 1990, 28-29.