Overview
The Coronation of the Virgin is the final episode in the story of Mary’s life. After her death, she ascended to heaven, body and soul, to be crowned queen by her son. Angels sang and played music in celebration. The subject of the Virgin’s coronation was especially popular in Florence during the last half of the 14th century. Often it appeared at the center of a tripartite altarpiece, flanked by crowded scenes of adoring saints on either side. Very likely, this painting was originally part of such an assemblage.
The subject of Mary’s coronation—an appropriate place for the display of regal finery—complemented a late-Gothic renewal in contemporary Florentine painting. During the later 14th century, artists explored the expressive potential of curvilinear contours and richly decorated surfaces in combination with the naturalistic approach pioneered earlier by the Florentine artist
Entry
The
There seems no reason to doubt that Agnolo Gaddi likewise followed this scheme,
As for the artist who painted The Coronation of the Virgin, scholars have been unanimous, with the exception of an attribution to
We may begin by examining the composition that Gaddi adopted for the groups of angels that appear in the foreground in front of the throne of Mary in various altarpieces. In Agnolo’s Berlin triptych, datable to 1387,
In the Gallery’s panel, not only the groups of music-making and chorister angels but also the central protagonists themselves, and the very composition of the scene, display innovative features in comparison with the triptych of 1387. The bodies of Christ and his mother
To judge from the stylistic evidence, The Coronation of the Virgin in Washington ought to be placed in the phase of Gaddi’s career in which he embarked with ever greater determination on the pursuit of the elegance of form, preciousness of color, and decorative richness typical of the late-Gothic style that was becoming increasingly fashionable in Florence; the panel’s surface patterning and elaborate tooling are also indicative of this. Yet the Washington panel shows that Agnolo Gaddi cannot have remained unaware of the alternative current of Florentine painting headed by Niccolò Gerini, which in the years 1385–1400 tried to revive motifs and forms associated with painters of the school of Giotto in the first half of the century.
Miklós Boskovits (1935–2011)
March 21, 2016
Provenance
The Hon. William Keith Rous [1907-1983], Worstead House, Norfolk; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 29 June 1934, no. 58, as by Orcagna); purchased by (Giuseppe Bellesi, London)[1] for (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold October 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1939
- Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 128.
- 1940
- Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1940, no. 59.
Technical Summary
The wooden support is a three-member, vertically grained wood panel that Stephen Pichetto
The panel has been damaged by woodworm, requiring the replacement of lost wood and strengthening of the joins. Stephen Pichetto removed discolored varnish and
Bibliography
- 1934
- Christie, Manson, & Woods. Pictures and Drawings by Old Masters. London, 29 June 1934: no. 58.
- 1937
- Ragghianti, Carlo Ludovico. "Su Agnolo Gaddi." Critica d’arte 2 (1937): 188, pl. 134, fig. 1.
- 1939
- Valentiner, Wilhelm R., and Alfred M. Frankfurter. Masterpieces of Art. Exhibition at the New York World’s Fair, 1939. Official Souvenir Guide and Picture Book. New York, 1939: no. 8, pl. 6.
- 1941
- National Gallery of Art. Book of Illustrations. Washington, 1941: 105 (repro.), 240.
- 1941
- Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 70, no. 314.
- 1942
- Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 107.
- 1944
- Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 18, repro.
- 1945
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 21, repro.
- 1950
- Gronau, Hans Dietrich. "A Dispersed Florentine Altarpiece and its Possible Origin." Proporzioni 3 (1950): 42.
- 1951
- Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 23 n. 1.
- 1955
- Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. 2nd ed. New York, 1955: pl. 27.
- 1959
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 23, repro.
- 1960
- Labriola, Ada. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 82+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 51(1998):146.
- 1963
- Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 2:69, pl. 350.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 54.
- 1966
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 39-40, fig. 98-99.
- 1967
- Klesse, Brigitte. Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Bern, 1967: 344.
- 1968
- Boskovits, Miklós. "Some Early Works of Agnolo Gaddi." The Burlington Magazine 110 (1968): 210 n. 5.
- 1968
- National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 46, repro.
- 1972
- Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 77, 308, 645, 661.
- 1975
- Boskovits, Miklós. Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370-1400. Florence, 1975: 118, 303, 304, fig. 267.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 140, repro.
- 1977
- Cole, Bruce. Agnolo Gaddi. Oxford, 1977: 28-30, 35, 36, 89, 90, pls. 83-85.
- 1978
- Boskovits, Miklós. "Review of Agnolo Gaddi by Bruce Cole." The Art Bulletin 60 (1978): 708, 709.
- 1979
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:194-195; 2:pl. 135.
- 1980
- Cole, Bruce. Sienese Painting from Its Origins to the Fifteenth Century. New York, 1980: 14-16, fig. 8.
- 1984
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 73, no. 13, color repro.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 163, repro.
- 1986
- Ford, Terrence, compiler and ed. Inventory of Music Iconography, no. 1. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York 1986: 1, no. 4.
- 1986
- Ricci, Stefania. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In La Pittura in Italia. Il Duecento e il Trecento. Edited by Enrico Castelnuovo. 2 vols. Milan, 1986: 2:572.
- 1988
- Davies, Martin, and Dillian Gordon. National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools. Rev. ed. London, 1988: 28.
- 1989
- Bellosi, Luciano. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Dizionario della pittura e dei pittori. Edited by Enrico Castelnuovo and Bruno Toscano. 6 vols. Turin, 1989-1994: 2(1990):471.
- 1989
- Eisenberg, Marvin. Lorenzo Monaco. Princeton, 1989: 56 n. 56.
- 1991
- Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 179, color repro.
- 1991
- Petrocchi, Stefano. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale. Edited by Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana. 12 vols. Rome, 1991-2002: 6(1995):426, 427.
- 1992
- Chiodo, Sonia. "Gaddi, Agnolo." In Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Edited by Günter Meissner. 87+ vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992+: 47(2005):113
- 1994
- Skaug, Erling S. Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico: Attribution, Chronology, and Workshop Relationships in Tuscan Panel Painting with Particular Consideration to Florence, c. 1330-1430. 2 vols. Oslo, 1994: 1:262, 263; 2:punch chart 8.2.
- 1996
- Gold Backs: 1250-1480. Exh. cat. Matthiesen Fine Art, London. Turin, 1996: 74, repro. 76.
- 1996
- Ladis, Andrew. "Agnolo Gaddi." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 11:892.
- 1996
- Rowlands, Eliot W. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Italian Paintings, 1300-1800. Kansas City, MO, 1996: repro. 63.
- 1998
- Frinta, Mojmír S. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998: 132, 481.
- 2004
- Skaug, Erling S. "Towards a Reconstruction of the Santa Maria degli Angeli Altarpiece of 1388: Agnolo Gaddi and Lorenzo Monaco?" Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 48 (2004): 255.
- 2005
- Splendeurs de la peinture italienne, 1250-1510. Exh. cat. Galerie G. Sarti. Paris, 2005: 62, 64, repro. 66.
- 2016
- Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 131-37, color repro.
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