Duccio’s Madonna is a fake, according to an expert

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (www.metmuseum.org)

Duccio’s Madonna is a fake, according to an expert

Would you throw 50 million dollars to the trash bin? So that was exactly what – in opinion of James Beck, an expert from the University of Columbia- the Metropolitan Museum of New York did in 2003, when this institution acquired the Madonna and child (known as the Stoclet Madonna, as it was previously in the Stoclet collection of Brussels), a panel by Duccio di Buonisegna which is -in his opinion- completely false, having been created after the death of Duccio by another painter following the style of the sienese master.

The answer of the American Museum has been immediate, declaring that the numerous analysis made on the painting have demonstrated that the table is a genuine work by Duccio

Duccio da Buoninsegna: Madonna and child, c.1300

ABOUT DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA

Duccio di Buoninsegna ( Siena , 1255 – 1319) is the founder of the sienese School and, along with Giotto di Bondone, the initiator of all the Italian Renaissance painting. Very influenced by the Byzantine Art and iconography, its Art is gradually evolving towards a greater humanization of the figures and a much more interesting iconography. Its unquestionable masterpiece, the culmination of Duccio’s Art, is the polyptych of The Maestá (the Majesty), now exhibited in the Museum of the Cathedral of Siena, although several of their tables are today dispersed in several museums of the world.