''The Coronation of the Virgin'' is a

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

on panel

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a " triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapt ...

by the Italian late Gothic artist Lorenzo Monaco, centred on the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin. Once in the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, it is now housed in the

Uffizi Gallery 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 ...

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 dated February 1413 which, in the

Florentine calendar The Florentine calendar, also referred to as the ''stylus Florentinus'' ("Florentine style"), was the calendar used in the Republic of Florence in Italy during the Middle Ages. Unusually, both the beginning of the day and the beginning of the yea ...

(which began in March), corresponded to 1414.

History

The painting is mentioned in the early 15th century by Antonio Billi. In the late 16th century, it was replaced in the altar it occupied by a large canvas by

Alessandro Allori Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori (Florence, 31 May 153522 September 1607) was an Italian painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school. Biography In 1540, after the death of his father, Allori was brought up and train ...

. The ''Coronation'' was rediscovered in the 19th century, when it was housed in the Camaldolese abbey of San Pietro a Cerreto, in poor condition. In 1872 it was restored to its frame. In 1990 the painted part was found to contain the precious and (for the time) expensive use of

lapis lazuli blue Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines ...

Description

The work is in a huge gilded and carved frame, with three cusps covered placed on jutting corbels. The three arches are decorated with vegetable motifs; over them are three panels (whose upper frame is lost), containing the paintings, from the left, of the ''Angel of the Annunciation'', the ''Blessing Christ between Cherubims'' and the ''Annunciation''. At the side are two piers with twisting columns on the edges, with paintings of prophets. In the lower part is the

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 six small paintings of the ''Episodes of the Lives of St.

Benedict Benedict may refer to: People Names *Benedict (given name), including a list of people with the given name *Benedict (surname), including a list of people with the surname Religious figures * Pope Benedict I (died 579), head of the Catholic Chu ...

and St.

Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order throug ...

''. The central painting within the three arcades shows the Coronation of the Virgin set in Paradise (alluded by the blue starred belts), with two rows of saints at the sides and a large number of angels behind the throne of Jesus and the Madonna. The composition is crowded but, like other Giottoesque paintings, lacks perspective. The gilded background is typical of Lorenzo's style.

Sources

*{{cite book, first=Gloria , last=Fossi, title=Uffizi, publisher=Giunti, location=Florence , year=2004, isbn=88-09-03675-1 Paintings by Lorenzo Monaco 1414 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Uffizi

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Polyptychs Altarpieces