Description
Polyptych No. 28, in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, comprises five painted compartments crowned by pinnacles. The Virgin and Child occupy the centre, flanked by Saints Augustine, Paul, Peter and Dominic. Above them are Christ and four angels. Its carefully ordered framework reveals how early fourteenth-century Sienese painting combined sacred hierarchy with graceful human expression.
The altarpiece is traditionally associated with Duccio di Buoninsegna and his workshop, although the division of labour and possible connections with Ugolino di Nerio remain debated. A Dominican origin in Siena has been proposed from the choice of saints, but no surviving commission identifies its original altar. A possible Dominican connection helps explain the choice of figures but does not prove an original location. Saints were honoured outside the houses of their own orders, and altarpieces could be moved.






