The Coronation of the Virgin

Lorenzo Monaco's Coronation of the Virgin of 1407, in the National Gallery, London, is an early version of a subject he would treat repeatedly throughout his career. The painting reflects the Florentine tradition of monumental altarpieces celebrating the glorification of the Virgin, a theme central to Marian devotion in early Renaissance Florence. Lorenzo Monaco — Piero di Giovanni — was a Camaldolese monk who became one of Florence's most gifted painters in the transition between the Gothic and the Early Renaissance.

The composition arranges attending saints and angels in sweeping curves around the central coronation, with the luminous color and delicate gold tooling that distinguish Lorenzo Monaco's contribution to the International Gothic in Florence.