The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel

The panel formed part of the front predella of Duccio's double-sided altarpiece, the Maestà, which was in the course of execution by October 1308 and was placed on the high altar of Siena Cathedral on 30 June 1311. The altarpiece was removed from the cathedral in 1506, first stored by the Cathedral authorities, and later displayed on the wall of the left transept, by which time the predella and gable panels had probably already been separated from it. In 1777 the work was moved to the church of Sant'Ansano, where its two sides were separated and returned to the cathedral.

By 1798 the gables and eight predella panels were reported in the sacristy, while this panel had already entered private hands. It was probably with Charles Fairfax Murray in London and Florence in the early 1880s, who appears to have sold it in 1884 to the Gemäldegalerie der Königliche Museen, Berlin. Deaccessioned in 1937 and exchanged with Duveen Brothers, it was purchased on 26 April 1937 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh, and gifted to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., that year.

It is held there as part of the Andrew W. Mellon Collection, with the inventory number NGA 1937.1.8.

The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel occupies a transitional role in Duccio's oeuvre, marking the shift from the Italo-Byzantine maniera greca toward the more naturalistic and spatially coherent compositions of Sienese Trecento painting. Scholars consistently situate the panel within the predella of the Maestà (c. 1308–11), where its narrative density and hieratic scale contrasted with the monumental central Maestà while aligning with the devotional expectations of the predella's lower register. Critical discussions emphasize the work's layered iconography: the central Nativity unfolds in multiple episodes, birth, bath, and Annunciation to the shepherds, while the flanking prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel anchor the scene in Old Testament prophecy through inscribed texts and symmetrical gestures.

The panel's Byzantine formal traits, flat spatial recession, hierarchical proportions, and gold ground, are tempered by Duccio's incipient volumetric modeling and emotional nuance, particularly in the Virgin's recumbent posture and Joseph's introspective aside. Its later dispersion after the Maestà's dismantling in 1506 and eventual migration from Berlin to Washington (via Duveen) has framed its reception as emblematic of the challenges in reconstructing Sienese altarpiece ensembles post-separation.

Duccio di Buoninsegna's painting, The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, created around 1310, is a tempera work on a single poplar panel. This religious scene depicts the Virgin Mary kneeling beside the Christ Child within a stable, while two Old Testament prophets observe from above. The artwork exemplifies early Sienese painting traditions, blending narrative detail with symbolic elements characteristic of the period.