Coronation of the Virgin (1420s): Art, History and Details

Coronation of the Virgin (1420s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Fra Angelico (Italian, 1400–1455).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This picture’s original use is uncertain. Its size and shape are appropriate for a predella (the pedestal portion of an altarpiece), which often consists of several small panels. However, the Coronation of the Virgin almost never appears on predellas. The panel’s minute detail and rich finish suggest it may have been an object for private devotion. This is believed to be an early work by Fra Angelico, whose real name was Guido di Pietro, a Dominican monk in Florence. Here, an angel holds the Virgin’s train while she kneels to receive the crown offered by Christ. The scene glimmers with gold; the thrones are draped with starry tapestries, the walls are hung with gold cloth, and Christ himself radiates light.

Object facts

• Title: Coronation of the Virgin
• Date: 1420s
• Creator attribution: Fra Angelico (Italian, 1400–1455)
• Culture: Italy, Florence
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and gold on wood panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 45.5 x 51.5 x 8.5 cm (17 15/16 x 20 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 27 x 37.2 cm (10 5/8 x 14 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1944.79

A detail from the museum

Since its acquisition in 1944 the authorship of this painting has been updated from the workshop of Fra Angelico to the master himself.

Collection credit

The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William Mathewson. The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art. [New York]: [The Art news], 1936.
• Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection : Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944.
• Francis, Henry S. “Paintings in the Prentiss Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 6 (1944)

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.