The Glorification of the Virgin

The Glorification of the Virgin was among the grandest subjects of Catholic devotional art, depicting Mary assumed into heaven and crowned by Christ and the Trinity in the presence of the entire celestial court. The subject's visual tradition ran from medieval altarpieces through Raphael's Disputà, Titian's Assunta, and the great ceiling decorations of the Roman Baroque. Van Thulden painted this canvas in 1663, late in his career, for a religious context that likely involved a church or convent interior. His experience with ceiling decorations and large-scale religious commissions — he had assisted Rubens on the Jesuit church in Antwerp and worked extensively in 's-Hertogenbosch — made him one of the few Flemish painters capable of handling such a complex multi-figure heavenly composition with confidence.

A glorification composition must manage dozens of figures — the Virgin enthroned in glory, the Trinity above, ranks of saints, angels, and clouds below — within a vertical format that suggests the upward movement of ascension. Van Thulden uses strongly contrasted light and shadow to organize the heavenly tiers, with the brightest illumination at the apex concentrating the eye on the divine centre. Loose, gestural handling of the clouds and angel clusters gives the celestial zone an appropriate sense of immaterial radiance.