The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel was painted in 1308 as an altarpiece to be placed on the high altar of the Cathedral of Siena in Italy. The artist of this painting is named Duccio di Buoninsegna …show more content…
We can tell this painting is important because of the gold used in the background which in Byzantine art has been used to depict a spiritual place. Gold plates are also used behind the head of Mary, and other holy figures within the painting. Another color in which helps us to understand the importance of this painting is the color blue. Blue pigment was expensive, and the use of this color especially how much is used in Mary’s clothing, shows that this figure in the painting is important. Each figure in the scene is extremely important to the artist, and we know this because he made sure to give us a clear view of everyone’s face. The overall painting is very neat, and orderly. All the figures are lined up and none of the figures heads are overlapping. This makes it easy to identify figures to make the story easier to read. Scale also plays an important role when finding out how to paint each figure. Overall including original frame of the painting, the size is 48 × 86.8 × 7.9 cm (18 7/8 × 34 3/16 × 3 1/8 in.). This painting is a tempura painting, tempura paint is made of egg yok and colored pigments. Duccio painted this piece on two wooden panels called a poplar panel that each have a thickness of 6cm. On top of the wooden panels are three gilded moldings which is what separates the three sections of the