Art Beyond Sight: Handbook

"The Coronation Of The Virgin," Gentile da Fabriano (1420)

J. Paul Getty Museum , Los Angeles , CA

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN

Gentile da Fabriano. Painted about 1420. Tempera and gold leaf on panel,

34 1/2 inches high by 25 1/2 inches wide.

This golden picture is almost entirely taken up by the symmetrical figures of the seated Christ on the right, placing a bejeweled golden crown on the inclined head of the Virgin Mary, who sits on the left, her hands crossed over her chest. Above them, centered in the rays of a golden sunburst, hovers a white dove with grey-tipped wings and bearing a halo. Standing below and beside the figures, three miniature angels are aligned in two vertical rows. The Christ is wearing a medieval-style tunic of gold gathered at the waist by a narrow golden sash. The garment is embroidered with five-pointed golden stars, surrounded by stars of blue, and encircled by red stars. Falling from his shoulders as he raises his arms is a rich burgundy robe bordered in patterned gold, bearing vines with golden leaves and five-petaled golden flowers with hearts of blue. The Virgin's robe, which she holds close to her, has tightly-clustered seven-petaled floral pinwheels of gold over a background of royal blue.

Behind the two figures, from their shoulders down, flows a patterned dark green tapestry reminiscent of Christ's robe with its five-pointed snowflakes of red and gold. The figures and the background, absent of depth, are laid virtually flat against each another. Standing in the lower corners on either side, the angels, partially obscuring each other in descending columns, look upward toward the figures of Mary and Christ, their lips open in song, their hands holding an unfurled white parchment ribbon with musical notes and Latin words that wind in and out of view.

The hands and faces of the principal figures are painted realistically in a greyish pink, making their skin ashen, and their placid, almost expressionless features, look otherworldly, in great contrast to the richly-tooled golden crown, the embossed halos, and opulent, embellished fabrics. Presiding over all this, Christ's uplifted hands, in the moment between setting the crown and blessing the Virgin Mary, are set against a broad sheet of pure gold that rises behind the figures until it vanishes under a gilded arch of carved leaves supported by spiral columns--an ornately-carved wooden frame through which we view the coronation.

The label reads:

The Coronation of the Virgin, About 1420, Gentile da Fabriano, Italian, about 1370-1427, Tempera and gold leaf on panel.

This panel of Christ crowning his mother, Mary, originally formed the front of a two-sided processional standard carried in religious ceremonies in Gentile's native town of Fabriano . In this shimmering image, Gentile makes effective use of the complex patterning and wealth of surface ornamentation that is characteristic of the International Gothic style and that recalls the rich fabrics woven in Florence.