GIAMBONO, Michele
(b. ca. 1400, Venezia, d. ca. 1462, Venezia)

Coronation of the Virgin

c. 1448
Tempera on panel, 229 x 176 cm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

After a probable initiation at the workshop of Jacobello del Fiore, followed by a phase of admiration of Gentile da Fabriano, Michele Giambono soon passed to a sweetened form of Gothicism with somewhat affected colourings rather along the lines of Pisanello's work in the Palace of the Doges in Venice. The 'Coronation of the Virgin' which in fact has a clearly Gothic air about it, can probably be identified as the panel commissioned from Giambono in 1447 by Giovanni Dotto for the Church of S. Agnese. Attached to the order were the conditions that it should be delivered by the end of 1448 and that it should be similar to the one, painted not many years before by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna for the Venetian church of San Pantalon.