Coronation of the Virgin

In 1447 Michele Giambono signed a contract with unusual instructions: he was to make an altarpiece for the church of Sant'Agnese in Venice that copied an existing one. The model was the 'Paradise' finished three years earlier for San Pantalon by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna, a vision of heaven crowded with saints. Giambono followed the pattern, with Christ crowning the Virgin at the summit while ranks of holy figures rise around them, but he loosened the neat order of his source into a denser, more excited throng. He was working in the International Gothic that Venice still loved, and the whole panel glitters with tooled gold and patterned fabric. It has carried the second name 'Paradise' ever since, and a modern cleaning uncovered large areas of original paint long hidden under later work.