Duccio di Buoninsegna ca. 1255 – 1319

The prophet Ezekiel (Maestà)

tempera on panel (43 × 16 cm) — 1308-11 Museum National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Duccio di Buoninsegna biography

This work is linked to Ezekiel 44:2

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This panel from Duccio's Maestà shows the prophet Ezekiel holding a scroll. It displays a text in Latin: "Porta hæc clausa erit : non aperietur, et vir non transibit per eam". In English that became "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it" (Ezekiel 44:2).

The text refers to the eastern gate of Jerusalem through which the Lord had entered. Some relate it to the birth of Christ through the virgin Mary. Duccio put Ezechiel right beside the panel with the Nativity.

Ezekiel again refers to the eastern gate in Ez. 46:12. He says the gate shall be opened for "a prince" who wants to make offerings. That prince could be a reference to Jesus, as mere mortals were not allowed to pass through the gate.

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