The Halfway House

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Defending Duccio

Published: November 13, 2004

More than a few eyebrows went up when the Metropolitan Museum of Art confirmed this week that it had bought a painting by an early Renaissance master, and the price was reported to exceed $45 million. The price is interesting, and so is the painter - Duccio di Buoninsegna, who is not widely known - and the painting's size, about the same as a sheet of typing paper. Perhaps no one would have thought twice if it had been a Leonardo da Vinci the size of an unfolded newspaper. But art is not just a matter of big names and dollars per square inch.

As always, a record art purchase sends some people into throes of comparative anxiety. Think of the possible uses of that $45 million, all the good it could do. But it has already done good. A painting that has been seen by only a few people in its 700 years of existence will be on display for everyone. These days, $45 million may not even buy much of a star's multiyear baseball contract, and this Duccio will draw visitors long after Derek Jeter retires.

The Met clearly feels a need to justify this acquisition, both because it fills a critical gap in its collection and on aesthetic grounds. Yet the most basic justification for a purchase like this nearly always goes unstated. The Met's essential job is to preserve art of the past for the future. For the experts, a purchase like this may not redefine the history of painting, but it will bring a new understanding of the period, and of art itself, to visitors who have never seen it before. That means almost everyone.