Duccio di Buoninsegna.

Rucellai Madonna. c. 1285. Tempera on wood. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Deposited in the Church Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy.

The Duccio Madonnas


I have seen them, the Duccios,
hands long as ropes
thinning to conception.

Cooled, now, in the blue
introspection of fire,
frosted to lace,

they burn round a babe,
curve to the slack,
kneel to the Space,

and in the brief hollow
of self, stem
Time’s immolation.



Rosemary Thomas
Selected Poems of Rosemary Thomas
Intro. Mark van Doren
New York, 1968 Twayne