Crowning of Maria and child by two angels

The Coronation of the Virgin — Christ and God the Father crowning Mary as Queen of Heaven — was among the most elevated subjects in late medieval and early Renaissance religious painting, placed typically at the apex of altarpiece structures as the culminating moment of Mary's glorification. This version from around 1488, now in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, adds two angels attending the crowning, giving the scene added ceremonial grandeur. The Suermondt collection is one of the important German provincial holdings of Flemish panel painting from this period.

The Coronation subject requires careful organisation of the divine figures — Trinity members and Mary — in a hierarchical space communicating their theological relationships. Gold backgrounds or heavenly clouds remove the scene from terrestrial space.