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Bernardo Daddi's 'Coronation of the Virgin': The Reunion of Two Long-Separated Panels

Simona di Nepi, Ashok Roy and Rachel Billinge
Technical Bulletin Volume 28, 2007

Abstract 

The reunion of Bernardo Daddi’s Coronation of the Virgin with the 'Four Musical Angels' from Christ Church, Oxford was the subject of a small exhibition in autumn 2005 at the National Gallery. This article presents the new technical material which emerged during the research for that exhibition and its relationship to a revised reconstruction of Daddi’s original design. This included the discovery of a third halo in the x-radiograph of the National Gallery panel and the finding of two pentimenti in the infrared reflectogram of 'Four Musical Angels', as well as the analysis of the pigments used both in the original composition and in the extension at the bottom of the 'Coronation of the Virgin'.

Keywords

Bernardo Daddi, Cennino Cennini, Coronation of the Virgin, dismembered altarpiece, fourteenth-century painting, fragmentary panels, Giotto, mordant gilding, nineteenth-century additions, punchmarks, silver leaf, trecento techniques

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Bernardo Daddi's 'Coronation of the Virgin': The Reunion of Two Long-Separated Panels, Simona di Nepi, Ashok Roy and Rachel Billinge (PDF 25.16MB)

To cite this article we suggest using

di Nepi, S., Roy, A., Billinge, R. 'Bernardo Daddi's "Coronation of the Virgin": The Reunion of Two Long-Separated Panels'. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 28, pp 4–25.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/dinepi_roy_billinge2007

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