The Coronation of the Virgin

1453 · Musée de l'Hospice, Villeneuve-les-Avignon

religious

From the surviving contract we know the name of the man, Jean de Montagnac, who commissioned this painting, Charonton's chef d'oeuvre, the exact date when it was painted, and the painter's name. The Coronation of the Virgin is the central scene of this enormous, elaborate composition. The decorative figure of the Virgin, floating in gold and red brocade in the middle distance, is flanked by God the Father and by Jesus, both depicted as men of the same age, with the same facial characteristics and clothes.

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About the Artist

Enguerrand Charonton

1410 – 1466

Enguerrand Charonton (or Quarton), French painter. His career is unusually well documented for a provincial artist of his date (he was active in Aix, Arles, and Avignon), but there are only two extant works that are certainly by him. These are the Virgin of Mercy (1452) in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, painted in collaboration with an obscure artist called Pierre Villatte, and the Coronation of the Virgin (1454) in the Musée de l'Hospice at Villeneuve-les-Avignon. They are both highly impressive works, uniting Flemish and Italian influence and having something of the monumental character of the sculpture of Charonton's region. Indeed, they show Charonton to have been a painter of such commanding stature that there is an increasing tendency to attribute to him the celebrated Avignon Pietà (Louvre, Paris), the greatest French painting of the period.

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