12. THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST ON THE MOUNTAIN, from Duccio's
Maestà ,
a vast altar-piece of over fifty separate panels painted between 1308
and 1311 for the altar of the cathedral in Siena. The stylized
landscape and figures are compositionally balanced with the walled
urban scenes which, to the modern eye, convey something of the tightly
packed proximity of medieval town life.