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Title:The Coronation of the Virgin
Artist:Follower of Botticelli (Italian, Florentine, fourth quarter 15th century)
Medium:Tempera on canvas, transferred from wood
Dimensions:39 1/2 x 60 1/4 in. (100.3 x 153 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
Object Number:49.7.4
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, London; [Paul Cassirer, Berlin]; Prince Charles Max von Lichnowsky, Chuchelná, Czech Republic; [J. and S. Goldschmidt, Berlin, 1927; sold for 40,000 marks to Duveen]; [Duveen, Paris, London, and New York, 1927–28; sold for $287,500 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1928–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 4; 1943, no. 4)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 4 (as by Botticelli).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.
Berlin. Gemäldegalerie. "The Botticelli Renaissance," September 24, 2015–January 24, 2016, no. 137.
London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "Botticelli Reimagined," March 5–July 3, 2016, no. 137 (as Workshop of Botticelli).
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill., attributes it to Botticelli and dates is about 1495–1500.
Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), p. 3, ascribes it to the "somewhat dry but monumental style of Botticelli's later period".
August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Jules Bache in New-York." Pantheon 6 (December 1930), p. 541, ill. p. 537, dates it about 1495–1500 and attributes it to Botticelli.
H. E. Wortham. "The Bache Collection." Apollo 11 (May 1930), p. 352, calls it a work of Botticelli's later period.
Royal Cortissoz. "The Jules S. Bache Collection." American Magazine of Art 21 (May 1930), p. 247, ill. p. 245.
Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 12, The Renaissance Painters of Florence in the 15th Century: The Third Generation. The Hague, 1931, p. 172, fig. 104, attributes it to Botticelli.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 104, attributes it to Botticelli, dating it not later than 1486.
Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 90.
Carlo Gamba. Botticelli. Milan, [1936], p. 163, fig. 135 [French ed., (1937), pp. 171–72, fig. 135], attributes it to Botticelli, identifies the figure beside Saint Francis as Saint Miniato, and dates it after 1490.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 4, ill.
"Bache Donates His Art to Public for a Museum: Home at 814 Fifth Ave. to House $20,000,000 Collection; Donor Sails Before Gift Is Revealed." New York Herald Tribune (April 29, 1937), pp. 1, 13, ill. p. 12, as by Botticelli.
"J. S. Bache Gives His Art Collection and 5th Avenue Residence to State." New York Times (April 29, 1937), p. 14, ill., as by Botticelli.
"Bache Art Goes on View Today in His Home Just as He Hung It." New York Herald Tribune (November 16, 1937), p. 3, as by Botticelli.
"Bache Art Works on Display Today: Former Residence on 5th Ave. Joins Front Rank of Small but Great Museums." New York Times (November 16, 1937), p. 25, as by Botticelli.
Royal Cortissoz. "The Great Masters in the Bache Collection." New York Herald Tribune (November 21, 1937), p. E9, ill., as by Botticelli; describes it as "subtle in feeling, superb in design, and with the linear distinction that only Botticelli could command".
Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941, unpaginated, no. 103, ill., dates it about 1486 and attributes it to Botticelli.
Sergio Bettini. Botticelli. Bergamo, 1942, p. 36, pl. 115 C, attributes it to Botticelli and dates it to the time of the Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
Regina Shoolman and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America. Philadelphia, 1942, p. 293, pl. 286.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 4, ill.
"Bache Art Going to Metropolitan: Famous Collection's 'Ultimate and Permanent Home' to Be Museum—Time Not Set." New York Times (January 18, 1944), p. 21, ill., as by Botticelli.
"Metropolitan to Get Bache Collection As Permanent Gift: $12,500,000 Paintings To Be Kept in Reconstructed Museum After War." New York Herald Tribune (January 18, 1944), p. 25, as by Botticelli.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 11.
Roberto Salvini. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli. Milan, 1958, vol. 2, p. 48, pl. 49, attributes it to Botticelli and accepts Bettini's [see Ref. 1942] dating.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, p. 37.
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York, 1971, pp. 164–66, ill., compare the Virgin to the one in Botticelli's large Coronation of 1490 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence), but find it "far removed from the emotional character of Botticelli's late works"; attribute it to a follower, "someone perhaps familiar with the work of Raffaellino del Garbo," and date it near 1500.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 34, 309, 373, 397, 414, 421, 608, as Attributed to Botticelli.
Roberta Jeanne Marie Olson. "Studies in the Later Works of Sandro Botticelli." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1975, p. 68.
Ronald Lightbown. Sandro Botticelli. Berkeley, 1978, vol. 2, pp. 146–47, no. C55, ill., states that "so far as the condition allows of a firm judgment, a workshop origin, based on a design by Botticelli, is probable"; dates it to the late 1490s or early 1500s.
Colin Simpson. Artful Partners: Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York, 1986, pp. 214, 293 [excerpt published in Connoisseur 216 (October 1986), p. 130; British ed., "The Partnership: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen," London, 1987], rejects the attribution to Botticelli and states "it cannot be by anyone of any merit"; reports that Bache bought it for $350,000 (but gives purchase price as $250,000 in Connoisseur excerpt).
Nicoletta Pons. Botticelli: catalogo completo. Milan, 1989, pp. 91–92, no. 132, ill.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 25, ill.
Miklós Boskovits inItalian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. Washington, 2003, p. 377 n. 6, mentions it among examples of this subject by Filippino Lippi and Botticelli where God the Father, rather than Christ, crowns the Virgin.
Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, p. 416.
Mark Evans inThe Botticelli Renaissance. Exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Munich, 2015, p. 289, no. 137, ill. (color) [English ed., "Botticelli Reimagined," London, 2016].
Karen Serres. "Duveen's Italian Framemaker, Ferruccio Vannoni." Burlington Magazine 159 (May 2017), p. 373 n. 40.
Anne Hilker. "The Art of Rivalry: The Jules S. Bache Collection, Its Formation, and Its Donation to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1919–44." Journal of the History of Collections 36, no. 2 (2024), p. 335 n. 75, fig. 5 (Bache collection study chart).
The saints depicted are (from left to right) Anthony Abbot, John the Baptist, Julian the Hospitaller, and Francis of Assisi.
Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro) (Italian, Vicchio di Mugello ca. 1395–1455 Rome)
ca. 1420–23
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