Heads of Two Angels

This is a fresco fragment from Correggio’s Coronation of the Virgin, which he painted in the apse of the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, Italy. It was part of a scene painted into the interior plaster on the church ceiling, and this fragment from the top layer of the plaster was removed and is now preserved in the National Gallery.The fresco depicted Christ crowning the Virgin Mary in heaven, surrounded by the evangelists, doctors of the church and infant angels (known in Italian as putti). Christ and the Virgin were seated beneath a flowering garden pergola against the golden sun of paradise. These heads belonged to the two angels standing behind Saint John the Evangelist. The foremost angel was originally looking up at the Holy Ghost descending in the form of a white dove while Christ crowned the Virgin with a coronet of stars.Correggio received final payment for the work in January 1524. The apse of the church was destroyed in the 1580s when the choir was enlarged, but the central figures of Correggio’s fresco showing the coronation of the Virgin were saved and are in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma. A replica of Correggio’s fresco was painted in 1587 by Cesare Aretusi in the new apse of S. Giovanni Evangelista.