page_title: Enguerrand Quarton
section_title: The Coronation of the Virgin
hierarchical_section_title: Enguerrand Quarton / The Coronation of the Virgin
caption_attribution_description: English: In this painting, Mary is crowned by the Holy Trinity. Unusually, God the Father and Jesus are shown as identical or with the same form. Español: En este cuadro la trinidad santa corona a Maria. También demuestran Dios el Padre y el Jesús como idéntico o con la misma forma. Français&#160;: Dans ce tableau la trinité sainte couronne Maria. Démontrent aussi Dieu le Père et Jesus comme identique ou avec la même manière. Italiano: In questa tabella la Trinidad corona santa Maria. Dimostrano così Dio Padre e Gesù come identico o con lo stesso modo.
context_page_description: Enguerrand Quarton was a French painter and manuscript illuminator whose few surviving works are among the first masterpieces of a distinctively French style, very different from either Italian or Early Netherlandish painting. Six paintings by him are documented, of which only two survive, and in addition the Louvre now follows most art historians in attributing to him the famous Avignon Pietà. His two documented works are the remarkable Coronation of the Virgin and The Virgin of Mercy. Two smaller altarpieces are also attributed to him.
context_section_description: The Coronation of the Virgin is a common subject in art but the contract for this work specifies the unusual representation of the Father and Son of the Holy Trinity as identical figures (very rare in the 15th century, though there are other examples), but allows Quarton to represent the Virgin as he chooses. Around the Trinity, blue and red angels are deployed similar to those in Fouquet's Melun diptych (now Antwerp). The depiction of Rome (left) and Jerusalem (right) in the panoramic landscape below is also specified in the contract; the donor had been on a pilgrimage that included both cities. Beneath this Purgatory (left) and Hell (right) open up, and in the centre the donor kneels before a Crucifixion. On the extreme left a church is shown in "cut-away" style, containing a Mass of Saint Gregory. Quarton was given seventeen months from the contract date to deliver the painting by September 29, 1454. As is usual, materials were carefully specified; elements of the language used appear to come from the dialect of Quarton's native Picardy, suggesting much of the final draft was by him. The contract has been described as "the most detailed to survive for medieval European painting".
  Like many of Quarton's landscape backgrounds, this depicts the Provençal landscape in a style derived from Italian painting, whilst his figures are more influenced by Netherlandish artists like Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck, but with a severity and elegance that is French alone, as is the geometrical boldness of his composition. His very strong colours have little shading, and his lighting is "harsh, even merciless". The landscape includes perhaps the first appearance in art of Mont Sainte-Victoire, later to be painted so often by Cézanne and others (some sources also mention Mont Ventoux). The painting remains in the monastery Chartreuse du Val de Bénédiction, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, for which it was commissioned by a local clergyman, Jean de Montagny.
caption: The Coronation of the Virgin, 1452-53
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