The Coronation of the Virgin
The Coronation of the Virgin
- Artist
- Giovanni da Bologna
- Artist Dates
- active c. 1377-1389
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Coronation of the Virgin
- Date
- about 1380
- Medium
- tempera and gold on panel
- Dimensions
- 112 x 61.2 cm (43-1/4 x 23-3/8 in)
- K Number
- K428
- Repository
- Denver Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1961.155
- Notes
Provenance
Michelangelo Gualandi [1795-1865], Bologna, sold 1890. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 1 January 1936; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1939; deaccessioned 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift 1954 to Denver Art Museum, no. 1961.155.
Catalogue Entry
Giovanni da Bologna
The Coronation of the Virgin
K428
Denver, Colo., Denver Art Museum (E-IT-18-XIV-926), since 1954.(1) Wood. 43 1/4 X 23 3/8 in. (109.8 X 59.4 cm.). Inscribed with the artist's signature on base of throne: IOHES PINTOR DE BOLOGNA. Principal figures in good condition; angels above Coronation and Madonna's mantle had been repainted in the late Renaissance; cleaned 1954. From a very small oeuvre and less than half a dozen signed paintings by the artist, this panel was the object of much search and speculation from the time it disappeared, in the late nineteenth century, until it was rediscovered in 1936.(2) It is less harsh than the St. Christopher of 1377, now in the Museum at Padua, and may date as early as 1365/70. Provenance: Michelangelo Gualandi, Bologna (sold 1890). Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1936 – exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (347), 1941-52.(3)
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1954. pp. 12 f, as Giovanni da Bologna. (2) Crowe and Cavalcaselle (Storia della pittura italiana. vol. IV. 1887. p. 87 n. I; Hutton ed . vol. II, 1909. p. 163 n. 2), mention seeing a photograph of the painting, then in the Gualandi Collection, and describe its composition and the signature. Subsequently, the following scholars complain of being unable to find it: A. Moschetti (in Rassegna d'Arte. vol. III, 1903, pp. 36 f). L. Venturi (Origini della pittura veneziana. 1907. p. 36). L. Testi (Storia della pittura veneziana, vol. I. 1909, p. 301). F. Filippini (in Rassegna d'Arte, vol. XII, 1912, p. 103), R. van Marle (Italian Schools of Painting, vol. IV, 1924, pp. 81 f), and F. Filippini and G. Zucchini (Miniatori e pittori a Bologna, 1947, p. 87). The painting was first published by the National Gallery (see note 3 below). It was discussed by R. Longhi (Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana, 1946, p. 47), who dates it before the St. Christopher, at Padua, of 1377. F. Bologna (in Arte Veneta, vol. v, 1951, p. 23) thinks that K428, along with the same artist's similar Coronation in the Pinacoteca, Bologna, was painted about 1365. G. Fiocco, F. M. Perkins, E. Sandberg-Vavala, A. Venturi (in ms. opinions), and B. Berenson (Italian Pictures ... Venetian School, vol. I, 1957, p. 87), concur in attributing K428 to Giovanni da Bologna. (3) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, pp. 82 f, as Giovanni da Bologna.