The Transfiguration

Duccio di Buoninsegna, the founder of the Sienese school of painting, created this Transfiguration around 1300, likely as part of the predella or narrative cycle of a larger altarpiece. The scene depicts Christ's radiant transformation on Mount Tabor before the astonished apostles Peter, James, and John, a subject of profound theological importance in medieval Christianity. Now in the National Gallery, London, it is among the works that established Duccio as one of the greatest painters of the Gothic era.

Painted in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the composition places the luminous figure of Christ at the apex of a triangular arrangement with the prostrate apostles below. Duccio's characteristic refinement shows in the delicate modeling of faces and the rhythmic flow of drapery folds.