The Development of the Coronation of the virgin in Trecento Venice : sources and meaning
Date
2001
Authors
Roberts, Angela Marisol
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Abstract
This thesis examines the development of the Coronation of the Virgin in fourteenth century Venice and the uses to which it was put for the purposes of perpetuating civic mythology and expressing Venetian ambitions regarding the cultural appropriation of Padua. Chapter one deals with the earliest example of Italian Coronation of the Virgin imagery in Rome and provides a theological and iconographical background for this development. Chapter two provides a comparison for the degree to which the early Roman images established authoritative examples for the monumental Coronations of the Virgin in Florence, Orvieto and Siena. Chapter three establishes the civic developments of the early trecento in Venice and explores the forms that Marian veneration took in the city. The fourth chapter introduces Guariento' s Coronation of the Virgin for the Venetian council hall as the turning point in Venetian Coronation imagery, expressing not only the city's own mythology but also its cultural colonizing ambitions. After Guariento' s decoration of the Sala del Gran Consiglio the Coronation of the Virgin increasingly became emblematic of Venice itself.