GIULIO ROMANO
(b. ca. 1499, Roma, d. 1546, Mantova)

Coronation of the Virgin (Madonna of Monteluce)

1505-25
Oil on wood, 354 x 232 cm
Pinacoteca, Vatican

In 1505 the nuns of the convent of Monteluce near Perugia commissioned Raphael for a painting of the Coronation of the Virgin. On the death of Raphael (1520) only some drawings were ready. In 1523 Raphael's assistants Giulio Romano and Giovan Francesco Penni were contracted to execute the altarpiece which was finally completed in 1525. The altar represents a compound, iconographically unusual subject, the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin. The work is made up of two parts, painted on different occasions and then joined together. The most likely hypothesis is that the upper panel with the Coronation of the Virgin (after a sketch by Raphael) is the work of Giulio Romano, while for the lower part with the Apostles gathered around a tomb covered in flowers an altarpiece by Giovan Francesco Penni was used.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.