The Coronation of The Virgin

Full portrait of seated Mary and Christ, once the center panel of an altarpiece. Mary's hands are crossed over her breast, gently pulling on her robe. Christ holds a staff in his proper left hand. His proper right hand is placing a crown on top of Mary's head. Both are haloed. There is a small angel at the top center of the panel, with two peeping out from behind. Two other angels hover above Mary and Christ, holding a drape. The composition is of the traditional Venetian type that is found in the altarpieces by Antonio Vivarini (Bartolommeo's brother) and Giovanni d'Alemagna in S. Pantaleone, Venice, as well as in a smaller painting with a similar center group in the Museo Civico, Turin. This subject originated with the great popularity of the Virgin in Gothic France and was introduced to Italy in the 13th century. Vivarini's picutre follows the traditional format in depicting the Virgin seated beside Christ who places a crown atop her head. Also typical is the choir of angels who surround the Virgin and her Son.
From Perri Lee, "Corpus of Early Italian Works in North American Public Collections: The South" : The composition of the two principle figures was repeated on many occasions by the Vivirini and their circle for the subject of the Coronation. It duplicates almost exactly the arrangements in the main altarpiece in Osimo (Palazzo Communale), variously attributed to Vivarini brothers and their school; x-rays indincate that the original arrangement of the Virgin's robe repeated almost exactly the design in the Osimo painting.
Overall, the Vivarini from Murano played a similar role as the Bellini familly as an important part of the development of painting in Venice. The Vivarini group spanned two generations, including Bartolommeo, his older brother Antonio, and his nephew and pupil Alvise, Antonio's son. Bartolommeo assisted Antonio in the execution of the polyptych in the Palazzo Communale in Osimo in which the center panel is also a Coronation of the Virgin. His personal style was already discernible there and is fully developed in the present Coronation, painted between 1460 and 1470.
Written attributions to B. Vivarini by Berenson, Fiocco, Longhi, van Marle, Perkins, Suida, A. Venturi
This painting was recorded in the Costabili Collection, Ferrara, in 1858. It was lot 20 in the Costabili sale of April 27-29, 1885. (Sambon, Milan, as School of Murano) In March 1858, Otto Mundler visited the Costabili Collection and described the painting, "Marco Zoppo, Coronation of the Virgin, with little angels above. The heads are in perfect state; the draped of the Virgin is entirely gone." The 1885 sales catalog also has photograph of the painting.
From Perri Lee, "Corpus of Early Italian Works in North American Public Collections: The South" : The painting was the center panel of an unidentified polypych, which may have also included the wings with "St. James of Compostella" and the "St. Frances of Assisi" (Philadelphia Museum of Art; 155 & 156), and the pinnacle with "Dead Christ" (Capua, Museo). Barbara Sweeney's suggestion that "St Jerome" (Ferarra, Collection of Mario Baldi; formerly Ferarra, Costabili Collection) was also from the same altarpiece was dismissed by Rudolfo Pallucchini because of the marked difference in size; the panel in Ferarra is much larger than the main panels cited above. The painting has been accepted as an autograph work by scholars, with the notable exception of Fern R. Shapley who considered it a colloborative work with Antonio Vivarini, and shop assistance. The work is generally dated c. 1460-70, although Palucchini placed it closer to 1464, the date of Bartolomeo's Ca' Morosini polyptych (Venice Accademia; 179).