The Coronation of the Virgin

This painting shows the coronation of the Virgin in heaven by Christ. This is one of two panels in our collection that were probably once part of the shutters of an altarpiece made for the high altar of the Benedictine abbey at Liesborn. The shutters flanked the main panel, which was painted by an artist known as the Master of the Liesborn, but were added about 40 years after it was completed.Both sides of the enormous shutters were painted. This panel was probably part of the shutters' outer faces, along with Christ before Pilate. Each outer face included four scenes, which, with the exception of this image and the Pentecost, showed episodes from the Passion of Christ. It is thought that the inner faces were each painted with one very large image, but both are now lost. After the altarpiece was removed and dismantled in the eighteenth century, the inner and outer faces were separated, and the individual episodes on the outer faces were cut into individual panels. There are two in our collection and six in the Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History, Münster.The artist has framed the image with a fictive stone arch with slim pilasters, similar to that used by the Master of Liesborn in the Annunciation scene. She kneels between Christ to the left and God the Father, who place a crown on her head. The Holy Ghost in the form of a dove hovers above her. This event is featured not in the Gospels but the Golden Legend, a thirteenth-century compilation of the lives of the saints, which records it as occurring after Mary’s glorious ascension to heaven.This is one of the most splendid images of the whole altarpiece. Each holy figure has a large gilded halo as well as an elaborate crown, and the artist has incised parallel lines into the gold leaf of the crowns to indicate areas of shadow (see, for example, the inner rim of the Virgin’s). In the background two angels play musical instruments – a lute and a flute – while two more hold up the rich red textile which forms the back to the throne. The symmetry of the composition creates a sense of harmony suitable for the final scene in the life of the Virgin. The inclusion of this moment among a group of images devoted mainly to the life of Christ is appropriate given that the altarpiece was dedicated to the Virgin, among other saints.