Christ Blessing

Segna di Bonaventura's Christ Blessing, dated around 1311 and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the work of one of the most faithful followers of Duccio di Buoninsegna in the Sienese school. This type of half-length blessing Christ likely served as the central pinnacle panel of a polyptych altarpiece, crowning the ensemble with an image of Christ in Majesty. Segna's conservative adherence to Duccio's style helped perpetuate the master's innovations across a wide network of Sienese churches and confraternities in the early fourteenth century.

Executed in tempera on gold-ground panel, the half-length figure of Christ displays Segna's characteristically faithful replication of Duccio's refined linear style and soft facial modeling. The blessing gesture and open book are rendered with precise draftsmanship, while the gold ground features carefully incised halo decoration in the Sienese manner.