id: 124076
accession number: 1944.79
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.79
updated: 2023-08-26 11:09:34.466000
Coronation of the Virgin, 1420s. Fra Angelico (Italian, 1400–1455). Tempera and gold on wood panel; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection 1944.79
title: Coronation of the Virgin
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1420s
creation date earliest: 1420
creation date latest: 1429
current location: 117B Italian Renaissance
creditline: The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection
copyright:
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culture: Italy, Florence, 15th century
technique: tempera and gold on wood panel
department: Medieval Art
collection: MED - Medieval Art
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Fra Angelico (Italian, 1400–1455) - artist
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measurements: 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.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Exhibition of the Month: The Rise of the Landscape in Art
opening date: 1948-06-09T04:00:00
Exhibition of the Month: The Rise of the Landscape in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9-September 26, 1948).
title: Gothic Art 1360-1440
opening date: 1963-08-06T04:00:00
Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).
title: Fra Angelico
opening date: 2005-10-24T00:00:00
Fra Angelico. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 24, 2005-January 30, 2006).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1936).
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PROVENANCE
Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi (1878-1955), Rome, Italy
date: -1924
footnotes:
citations:
Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss (1865–1944), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
date: 1924-1944
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1944-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
Since its acquisition in 1944 the authorship of this painting has been updated from the workshop of Fra Angelico to the master himself.
digital description:
wall description:
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.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Milliken, William Mathewson. The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art. [New York]: [The Art news], 1936.
page number: cat. no. 112
url:
Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection : Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944.
page number: Reproduced: p. [11], Plate I, cat. no. 1; Mentioned: p. 21, cat. no. 1
url: https://archive.org/details/Prentiss/page/n25
Francis, Henry S. “Paintings in the Prentiss Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 6 (1944)
page number: p. 87
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141132
Angelico, and John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy. Fra Angelico. New York: Phaidon Publishers; distributed by Garden City Books, 1952.
page number: p. 197
url:
“Gothic Art 1360-1440.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 7 (1963).
page number: cat. no. 79
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25151960
Cleveland Museum of Art. European Paintings Before 1500. Cleveland: The Museum, 1974. .
page number: cat no. 14, p. 41-42
url:
Bonsanti, Giorgio, and Angelico. Beato Angelico: catalogo completo. Firenze: Octavo, 1998.
page number: pp. 115-116, cat. no. 7
url:
Kanter, Laurence B., Angelico, Pia Palladino, and Magnolia Scudieri. Fra Angelico. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
page number: p. 9, no. 15
url:
Angelico, Magnolia Scudieri, and Sara Giacomelli. Fra Giovanni Angelico: pittore miniatore o miniatore pittore? Firenze: Giunti, 2007.
page number: p. 45, fig. 37
url:
Schumacher, Andreas, et. al. Florentiner Malerei: Alte Pinakothek : die Gemälde des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. [München]: Alte Pinakothek; Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2017.
page number: Reproduced: p. 230, Abb. 11.2
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.79/1944.79_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.79/1944.79_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.79/1944.79_full.tif