The size of this painting does not correspond to that of an altarpiece, whose structure it adopts, but that of a mobile work intended for private devotion. These small panels are particularly numerous in Siena.

Two artists worked on this piece. The central panel is attributed to Duccio, the dominant artistic personality in Siena around 1300, the volets to one of his collaborators, the Master of the Maestà Gondi.

A Virgin in Majesty occupies the central part. She is surmounted by a Coronation of the Virgin, itself framed by an Annunciation in the cornerstones of the arch. The volets present 6 scenes from the life of Christ. The birth, top left, is succeeded by the stages of the Passion, in which the Virgin consistently features, up to and including the Flagellation from which Mary should nevertheless be absent in theory. Such celebration of the person of Mary is typical of the city of the Virgin and of Gothic spirituality.

Duccio does not hesitate to break decisively with Italo-Byzantine art. The delicate humanisation of the face of the Maestà, and its subtle contours represent a departure from the hieratic expressionism of the icons. The throne transverses the plane of the support in the two central scenes; it is represented in miniature and in a play of shadow and light. The artist innovates in introducing a fluidity and sense of volume in the garments with their accented shadows and highlights. The golden rays on the Virgin's mantle come from the tradition of the icon. They retain their spiritual symbolism and graphical appearance but are executed with a new flexibility and a fondness for decorative elegance that profoundly influenced Sienese painting throughout the 14th century.

The character kneeling at the foot of the Maestà is represented in reduced proportions in order to convey his spiritual inferiority. He wears a crown and therefore represents a major figure – perhaps the German Emperor Henry VII. Seen in this light, the work contains a genuine political and religious message: by submitting to the Virgin Mary, he also submits to the city of Siena which lies under her protection.