Coronation of the Virgin

Piero del Pollaiuolo's Coronation of the Virgin from around 1483 belongs to his late career work after the Pollaiuolo brothers had returned to Florence from a period working in Rome. The Coronation — Christ placing a crown on the Virgin's head as Queen of Heaven — was one of the supreme subjects of Marian devotion, requiring the painter to depict a celestial court of extraordinary complexity. Piero's treatment reflects the workshop's mature synthesis of Florentine figure painting, classical influence absorbed in Rome, and the decorative elegance that had distinguished their work from the more anatomically dramatic approach of Antonio's battle paintings.

Piero renders the celestial scene with the Pollaiuolo workshop's characteristic precise drawing and rich color, organizing the heavenly figures in a balanced composition appropriate to the formal coronation subject.