Maggie's Farm

The Met's Own Mona Lisa

Recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for about 45 million, this 11"X8" Duccio, c. 1300, Madonna and Child, is one of the most dramatic and important acquisitions by the Met in decades.

Calvin Tompkins explains why, in The New Yorker.  A sample: "We are at the beginning of what we think of as Western art; elements of the Byzantine style still linger—in the gold background, the Virgin’s boneless and elongated fingers, and the child’s unchildlike features—but the colors of their clothing are so miraculously preserved, and the sense of human interaction is so convincing, that the two figures seem to exist in a real space, and in real time."

And he covers the interesting provenance of the painting.

(Sorry - you cannot go and see it -  it's undergoing minor renovations right now but will be back on display "soon".) Note the ancient candle burn-marks on the frame - they will remain.