MASOLINO da Panicale
(b. 1383, Panicale, d. 1447, Firenze)

View of the vaulting

c. 1435
Fresco
Collegiata, Castiglione Olona

The picture presents a view of the vaulting of the Collegiate Church with the scenes from the life of the Virgin. On the walls below, a cycle with scenes from the lives of the archdeacons Stephen and Lawrence, by Il Vecchietta and Paolo Schiavo can be seen.

The six scene from the life of the Virgin fill the six compartments of the cross-ribbed vaulting of the polygonal presbytery, their unusual arrangement dictated in part by the relative sizes of the available spaces. Owing to their larger numbers of figures, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Kings were relegated to the wider side compartments. The three narrower compartments between them were utilized for the glorification of the Virgin, in them we find the Coronation placed between the Annunciation and the Betrothal. The Assumption scene appears in the compartment directly behind the choir arch, and is not visible from the nave of the church. On the capstone God the Father giving benediction is depicted.




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