Die Krönung Mariens

Fra Angelico painted this in the 1430s for his own convent, San Domenico at Fiesole, in the hills above Florence. He was a Dominican friar, and he was also watching what the young architects and painters down in the city were doing with perspective and measured space. You can see him testing it here. Instead of floating Mary's crowning against a flat field of gold, the older way, he sets the whole heavenly court on a great flight of coloured marble steps that recede into real depth, angels and saints ranked on the tiers like a congregation. The sky behind is blue rather than gold. Below, in the small predella scenes, he lined up tiled floors and archways to pull the eye back through one careful room after another.