Le Couronnement de la Vierge

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, one of the most prolific and conservative Florentine painters of the late Trecento, depicted the Coronation of the Virgin in the grand manner established by Giotto's successors. The Coronation was among the most prestigious altarpiece subjects, suitable for high altars and major chapels, showing the entire heavenly court assembled to witness Christ crowning his Mother. Niccolò's extensive workshop produced altarpieces for churches and confraternities throughout Tuscany, maintaining the Giottesque tradition well into the early fifteenth century.

Painted in egg tempera on gold-ground panel, the composition arranges ranks of saints and angels in the symmetrical, hierarchical format traditional for Coronation altarpieces. Niccolò's solid, somewhat stolid figures and rich decorative punchwork exemplify the conservative late Giottesque style.