Original rose window

Duccio di Buoninsegna's original stained glass rose window for Siena Cathedral, designed around 1287, is one of the earliest known examples of a major panel painter providing cartoons for stained glass in Italy. The window depicts the Death, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin — subjects central to Siena's civic identity, as the city was dedicated to the Madonna. This prestigious commission established Duccio as the leading artist in Siena, paving the way for his masterpiece, the Maestà, two decades later.

Though the medium is stained glass rather than panel painting, the window's design reveals Duccio's characteristic elegance of line and sophisticated spatial arrangement. The compositions within each roundel demonstrate his ability to adapt his painterly sensibility to the constraints of the glass medium, with flowing draperies and expressive figural groupings that anticipate his later panel work.