The Coronation of the Virgin
1324
Painter, Italian, active first third 14th century

This Coronation of the Virgin may be the first time the subject, which originated in the West, appears in Venetian art. Some of the earliest representations were carved above cathedral doorways in France—and certain elements in the Gallery's painting—its elaborate halos, for example—share in the decorative elegance of Gothic art. Yet, the painting also has a strongly Byzantine character. The gold striations that define the figures’ robes, the flat gold background, and the almost abstract way that colors and shapes fill the field might have been copied from a Byzantine icon. The artist, however, did not have a Byzantine model. Instead, the look of his painting is the product of a pervasive, and enduring, Byzantine influence on all art of the Veneto, the region around Venice. Venice had close ties to Byzantium, starting in the sixth century, and enjoyed a virtual monopoly on trade with the East. Its ships carried, and its merchants sold, most of the luxury goods desired by the West: silks, spices, ivory, and exotic pigments. In part because of the ready availability of these pigments, the brilliant color we see here would continue to be a hallmark of Venetian painting into the Renaissance and beyond.
The panel, originally part of a much larger assemblage (see Reconstruction), has been attributed in the past to Paolo Veneziano, Venice’s most important artist in the 14th century. More likely, however, its painter belonged to the previous generation—he may even have been Paolo’s father, Martino da Venezia. A comparison to a painting by Paolo also in the National Gallery of Art, with more dimensional and less static figures, brings into focus the Coronation’s more schematic approach.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 1
Artwork overview
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Medium
tempera on poplar panel
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
painted surface (score lines to score lines): 99.3 × 77.4 cm (39 1/8 × 30 1/2 in.)
overall: 108.3 × 79 × 1.5 cm (42 5/8 × 31 1/8 × 9/16 in.)
framed: 115.3 x 86 x 8.9 cm (45 3/8 x 33 7/8 x 3 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1952.5.87
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Antonio Dal Zotto [1841–1918], Venice.[1] Dr. J. Carl [or Carlo?] Broglio, Paris;[2] purchased jointly 27 July 1950 by (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London) and (Rudolf Heinemann, New York); Agnew share sold to (Rudolf Heinemann, New York); (M. Knoedler and Co., New York);[3] purchased February 1952 as by Paolo Veneziano by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] On the life and career of the sculptor Dal Zotto see Livia Alberton Vinco da Sesso, "Antonio dal Zotto," in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 77 vols., Rome, 1960-: 32(1986): 285–287. In 1889 Dal Zotto married Ida Lessjak, widow of the photographer Carlo Naya, and after her death in 1893 Dal Zotto became owner of Naya’s successful firm specializing in views of Venice and reproductions of works of art. According to Alberton Vinco da Sesso, Naya had also amassed a collection of ancient statuary, and it cannot be excluded that the Gallery’s painting actually came from the photographer’s collection. Nonetheless, the catalogue of the sculptor’s estate sale, Collezione del fu Comm. Antonio del Zotto e già Giuseppe Piccoli (Geri-Salvadori, Venice, 1-16 September 1919), does not cite the painting, which perhaps had already been sold.
[2] Michelangelo Muraro, Paolo da Venezia, Milano, 1969: 157, transmits the reported provenance of the painting from the Broglio collection, annotated on a photograph in the photographic archive of the Biblioteca Berenson at the Villa I Tatti, Florence. The Agnew stockbooks record the painting as no. J0332 and identify the Broglio family member from whom it was purchased.
[3] The Agnew records (kindly confirmed by Venetia Constantine of Agnew’s, e-mail, 28 June 2010, in NGA curatorial files) give details about the joint purchase and indicate that Agnew’s share in the painting was sold to Heinemann on 16 June 1952, several months after the February date of the Knoedler bill of sale to the Kress Foundation (see note 4). Constantine speculates that Agnew might have recorded the date when payment for their share was actually received from Heinemann, rather than the date when they made the decision to sell their share. Heinemann often worked in tandem with Knoedler’s, for whom he was at one time managing partner, and may have done so in this instance.
[4] The bill of sale from Knoedler’s to the Kress Foundation for twelve paintings, including this one, is dated 6 February 1952; payment was made in three installments, the final one on 5 September 1952. See also M. Knoedler and Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II, Box 76 (Sales Book No. 16, Paintings, 1945-1953). Copies of the Knoedler bill and sale record are in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2111.
Associated Names
Bibliography
1907
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1931
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1950
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1951
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1957
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1963
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1965
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1966
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1968
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1969
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1970
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1971
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1972
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1973
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1974
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1975
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1976
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1977
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1978
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1979
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1981
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1982
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1983
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1984
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1985
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1986
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1988
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1989
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1991
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1992
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1993
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1994
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1996
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1997
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1998
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2002
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2003
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2004
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2005
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2006
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2007
Guarnieri, Cristina. "Il passaggio tra due generazioni: dal Maestro dell’Incoronazione a Paolo Veneziano." In Il secolo di Giotto nel Veneto. Edited by Giovanna Valenzano and Federica Toniolo. Venice, 2007: 166, 177-175, 176, fig. 26.
2009
De Marchi, Andrea. "La postérité du devant d’autel à Venise: retables orfévrés et retables peints." In The Altar and its Environment, 1150-1400. Edited by J. E. A. Kroesen and Victor Michael Schmidt. Turnhout, 2009: 63.
2011
Boskovits, Miklós, ed. The Alana Collection, Newark, Delaware, USA. Vol. II: Italian Paintings and Sculptures from the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century. Florence, 2011: 146.
2016
Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 303-313, color repro.
2021
Llewellyn, Laura, and John Witty, eds. Paolo Veneziano: Art & Devotion in 14th-Century Venice. New York, 2021: 11, fig. 8.
Inscriptions
on the base of the throne: MCCCXXIIII [1]
Wikidata ID
Q20173042