PUTTING ART (back) IN ITS PLACE

In 1311, the local Sienese artist Duccio completed a commission begun three years earlier on an enormous painting of the Virgin Mary seated on an elaborately decorated throne-like chair, with young Jesus sitting upright on her lap, and surrounded by a company of saints.  (Photograph by Michael Bruner)

The back of this panel was painted with the story of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, from the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem to his meeting with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, in no fewer than 26 individual scenes. (Photograph by Michael Bruner)