Art by Duccio

Duccio di Buoninsegna founded what became known as the Sienese school of painting, working in a style that kept more of the older Byzantine gold-ground tradition than Florentine painters like Giotto did, while still pushing toward more naturalistic figures and narrative detail. His major surviving work, the Maestà, a massive double-sided altarpiece made for Siena Cathedral, was reportedly carried through the city streets in a public procession when it was finished in 1311, a level of civic celebration rarely afforded to a painting. The altarpiece was later dismantled and its panels dispersed across multiple museums, so it's now impossible to see the full work assembled the way Siena once did.