The ''Coronation of the Virgin'' is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance master

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...

, executed around 1434–1435 in

Fiesole Fiesole () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times. Sin ...

(

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

). It is now in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The artist executed another '' Coronation of the Virgin'' (c. 1432), now in the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

History

The work is not thought to have originally been painted around 1434 (a few years after the similar painting in the Uffizi) for the convent of San Domenico of

, near Florence, where Fra Angelico was a Dominican friar and for which he painted also the

Fiesole Altarpiece The ''Fiesole Altarpiece'' is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, executed around 1424–1425. It is housed in the Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole, central Italy. The background was repainted by Lorenzo di Credi in 150 ...

(1424-1425) and the '' Annunciation'' now at the Museo del Prado. Some art historians, such as

John Pope-Hennessy Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy (13 December 1913 – 31 October 1994), was a British art historian. Pope-Hennessy was Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1967 and 1973, and Director of the British Museum between 1974 and 1976. ...

, date it instead to Angelico's visit to Rome (1450). The painting was brought to France as a result of the pillages of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. Like several other artworks, it was not given back with the excuse of its large size.

Description

The work shows several differences from the earlier ''

Coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

'' now at the

. The gilded background has disappeared, replaced by a more realistic light blue sky. The composition is more advanced, perhaps inspired to the innovation introduced by Masaccio. Angelico here depicts a rich cyborium with

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

triple

mullions A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

, supported by a series of polychrome marble steps, as the set of the Incoronation. Elements such as the twisted columns show similarities with the tabernacles painted in the frescoes of the Niccoline Chapel in Rome. Fra Angelico 085

Such as in the Florence painting, the angels and the saints form the audience at the side of the central scene, but the figures are more defined and some are shown from back, and the pavement's tiles are painted according to

geometrical perspective Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...

. Pope-Hennessy supposed that the angels were influenced by those in the San Brizio Chapel of

Orvieto Cathedral Orvieto Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Orvieto; Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta) is a large 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and situated in the town of Orvieto in Umbria, central Italy. Since 198 ...

(1447). The work was executed with the extensive help of assistants, especially in the right side: for example, St. Catherine's wheel is painted approximatively, and some of the saints in this side have less expressive faces. The painting has a

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

with scenes portraying the ''Miracles of St. Dominic'' and, in the middle, the ''Resurrection of Christ''. Such as in other Angelico's work, the predella scenes show an extensive use of geometrical perspective, enhanced by the use of alternatively empty and full architectures.

Sources

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{{Authority control 1430s paintings Paintings by Fra Angelico Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists