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Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Italian painting underwent a gradual transformation which took it away from Byzantine models to explore other pictorial solutions, culminating in the art of the beginning of the sixteenth century. Part of this process of transformation was carried out by the artists working in Tuscany: Giotto in Florence and Duccio in Siena. Both broke with the schematised style and formal limitations of Byzantine painting and opened the way towards a new period of art. The revolutionary change brought about by these artists in schemes such as the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels (by Giotto in Florence) or the Maestà (by Duccio in Siena), set out new ways which would lead towards a process which remained in continual evolution from that time onwards.
A sense of narrative, placing the various elements of the composition within a realistically depicted space, and a return to nature as a source of inspiration were among the novelties which these artists succeeded in introducing, thus changing the precepts on which painting itself was based.
Christ and the Woman of Samaria at the Well is one of the panels which forms the reverse side of the monumental altarpiece known as the Maestà, and contains some of these innovations. Duccio, using the architecture and some rocks to form the framing structure of the painting, narrates a scene from the Gospel of Saint John. This biblical episode, according to the New Testament, takes place in the Samarian city called Sicar, represented here on the right. Crowded together and coming out of the city gate are five of the Disciples with their provisions held in their robes. Christ, seated on Jacob's well, talks with the Samaritan woman, a dialogue which Duccio represents through the play of their various gestures. The scene is set within a detailed context and there is a real effort to place it within a setting which has some spatial depth: the well with its steps, the representation of the city, the cobbled road which leads from the city to the well, and the position of the pitcher on the head of the Samaritan woman have all broken away from rigid Byzantine formulae. In this simple but effective composition the elegant and refined figures have a relationship with their surroundings and have also acquired weight and volume. Gold is still used for the background and is also used, albeit in a decorative way, for the tunic and cloak of Christ where it outlines the cloth. The modulation of the tones and the elegant combination of colours have a personal character in Duccio's work. His figures, depicted with a delicate counterbalance of lights and shades, highlights and saturated colours, introduce new chromatic variations. It is enough to look at the slim figure of the Samaritan woman or the range of colours chosen for the architectural elements to appreciate the changes which this artist brought about, changes which Simone Martini would consolidate and disseminate in the fourteenth century.
Mar Borobia
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