The Sienese School of painting flourished in Italy between the 13th and 15th centuries and for a time rivalled Florence, though it was more conservative, being inclined towards the decorative beauty and elegant grace of late Gothic art. Its most important representatives include Duccio, whose work shows Byzantine influence; his pupil Simone Martini; Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; Domenico and Taddeo di Bartolo; Sassetta and Matteo di Giovanni. In the 16th century the Mannerists Beccafumi and Il Sodoma worked there.
Maestą by Duccio (1308-11) Tempera on wood, 214 x 412 cm Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena
One of the most original and influential painters of the fourteenth-century Sieneseschool, His art owes most to Duccio though there is no evidence that he was Duccio's pupil.
In 1320 he painted a polyptych for the church of St. Catherine at Pisa (a major part of it is preserved in the Municipal Gallery and the Seminario) and a Madonna and Saints for the cathedral of Orvieto (now in the Opera del Duomo).
He introduced the fresco technique into the Sieneseschool, but his own frescoes have suffered from the fact that he painted or retouched many portions a secco (i.e., on a dry surface) instead of in true fresco on wet plaster.
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