Artwork · 17th century · Annibale Carracci

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The Coronation of the Virgin

Annibale Carracciafter 1595Oil on canvas117.8 × 141.3 cm

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At a glance

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High above the clouds, Christ and God the Father together lower a crown onto the head of the Virgin Mary.
Annibale Carracci, a painter from Bologna, made this oil on canvas sometime after 1595.
With the white dove above, the three persons of the Trinity gather around Mary, and a ring of music-making angels closes the circle.

Reading the picture

5 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in at the top center. Two hands hold a golden crown between them. Points like little stars rise from its rim, and above it a white dove spreads its wings wide. In Christian art, the dove stands for the Holy Spirit.
Look at the chest of the young man seated on the left. Beside his ribs there is a small red wound. It is the mark of the spear that pierced Christ on the cross. That one detail tells us this is the risen Christ.
Zoom in on the angels on the cloud at the lower left. One holds a pipe to his lips. Next to him, a curly-haired angel bends his head over a stringed instrument. Between them, another face tilts up to look at the scene above.
Now cross to the angels on the right. One, wrapped in a red cloth, holds a bow and an instrument shaped like a violin. A small angel beside him holds an open book, and behind them an angel in blue plays an instrument with a round body.
Zoom in on the golden sky at the upper right. Faces and bodies melt into the light there, row after row. They are not sharp like the figures in front. They are the crowds of heaven, half lost in the glow. Clear things up close and soft things far away make the sky feel deep.

When it was painted

In 1595, Annibale Carracci left his hometown of Bologna for Rome. Cardinal Odoardo Farnese had sent for him. Back in Bologna, Annibale had run a teaching studio with his brother Agostino and his cousin Ludovico, where young painters learned by drawing real people.

In Rome, the Farnese Palace kept him busy. First he painted the ceiling of a small private room. Then he took on a long gallery and filled its curved vault with tales of the gods. Along the way he studied Raphael's painted rooms and Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling in the Vatican.

The Coronation of the Virgin comes from these first Roman years. According to the Met, it first turns up in a 1603 inventory of the belongings of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, a nephew of Pope Clement VIII. The museum is careful to add that no one knows for sure whether it was painted for him in the first place.

By the middle of the 1600s, the picture hung in the Aldobrandini family villa on the Quirinal Hill in Rome. Later it crossed to England, where one of its owners was the poet and collector Samuel Rogers. The Met acquired it in 1971.

Annibale's own story ended sadly. From about 1605 he sank into a deep depression and painted very little. He died in Rome in 1609 and was buried in the Pantheon, close to the tomb of Raphael.

Now look at the canvas once more. Find the soft gold glow at the top, and the figures on either side answering each other across Mary.

The painter

Annibale Carracci

1560–1609

All paintings by Annibale Carracci →

The Coronation of the Virgin

Questions to think about

Look for itAt the bottom center, can you find the figure lifting a white cloth high overhead, surrounded by little angels?
Why?Why do you think Carracci showed two figures crowning Mary together instead of just one?
What about you?Mary lowers her head and opens her hands as she receives the crown. When we get a prize or praise today, what kind of response feels most sincere to you?

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