Maestà

Maestà is an Italian term meaning majesty, used in art history to denote a type of large altarpiece that shows the Virgin Mary enthroned in majesty with the Child, often surrounded by saints and angels. The best-known example is the Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna, painted circa 1308–1311 for the high altar of the Siena Cathedral.

Duccio’s Maestà is a multifold polyptych with a central panel featuring the Madonna enthroned with the Child, flanked by saints arranged in horizontal registers, and a gilded background characteristic of the time. A narrative predella beneath the main scene depicts episodes from the lives of the Virgin and Christ. The work is celebrated for its synthesis of Byzantine-influenced sacred imagery with early attempts at naturalistic space, drapery, and psychological presence, marking a significant step toward the Italian Proto-Renaissance.

The term Maestà was used more broadly for similar enthroned-virgin compositions produced in Siena and other Italian centers during the 13th and 14th centuries. These works shared a devotion to majesty and authority in the portrayal of the Madonna, while varying in scale, composition, and stylistic details. The Duccio Maestà, in particular, influenced subsequent generations of Sienese painters and contributed to the shift toward more naturalistic representation within the framework of traditional devotional altarpieces.

Because of later dismantling and redistribution, the original altarpiece was separated into panels and dispersed; today the surviving components are housed in different museums, with the central panel preserved in Siena.