Bernardo Daddi, 'The Coronation of the Virgin', about 1340-5
About the work
Overview
The coronation of the Virgin was a very popular subject in Florentine painting. Inspiration for the images came not from the Bible but from legends recounting the Virgin’s glorious reception into heaven by Christ, where she took her place by his side.
Daddi and his large workshop of assistants painted several versions of the coronation. This one reflects a work by Giotto, both in the bulkiness of the figures and the Virgin’s crossed arms. This gesture of humility was more often found in images of the Annunciation.
It remains unclear whether this panel formed the centre of a large altarpiece but we do know that it was cut down and altered. A painting now in Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford, showing four angels playing musical instruments with saints, formed the lowest part of the picture. The remnants of the saints’ haloes were once visible here, but they were painted over some time before it entered the National Gallery’s collection.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Coronation of the Virgin
- Artist
- Bernardo Daddi
- Artist dates
- active 1312/20; died 1348
- Date made
- about 1340-5
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 111.7 × 75.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought with a grant from the American Friends of the National Gallery, London, made possible by Sir Paul Getty's endowment, 2004
- Inventory number
- NG6599
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400’, London 2011; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
2005National Gallery, The National Gallery Review: April 2004 - March 2005, London 2005
-
2011Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011
Frame
This is a twentieth-century replica tabernacle frame, a direct copy of the original Italian engaged frame surrounding The Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints and Angels by a follower of Daddi (Pinacoteca, Siena). The frame is designed to imitate a fourteenth-century style, complete with golden craquelure and an aged surface. The Gothic arched frame is adorned with lamb’s-tongue and leaf-tip ornamentation. The spandrels, which follow the panel’s shape, are decorated with a leaf motif created using punch-tooling. Solomonic columns with leaf capitals are integrated into the frame structure, resting on the predella, which features a punch-tooled frieze.
The previous frame for Daddi’s The Coronation of the Virgin, an elaborate nineteenth-century tabernacle frame, was depicted in a Christie’s auction catalogue from 1944.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.