Coronation of the Virgin

In 1733 a clerk drew up an inventory of the pictures owned by Andrea Gerini, a Florentine marquis, and entry 313 was a panel "by the hand of Rubens" showing the Most Holy Trinity with the Madonna. That entry is this sketch. The museum describes the same scene in its own words, Christ and God the Father crowning Mary as she is lifted into heaven.

Rubens painted it around 1623 to plan the high altar of the Franciscan church in Antwerp, and he worked it up in strong colour, with billowing drapery and wide gestures, to show the friars how the finished altarpiece would look. In Florence it became a showpiece. The Gerini had it engraved in 1759 for a printed volume of the finest pictures in their collection, and it stayed with the family until their sale in 1825.

After that it travelled north again, through collectors in Louvain, Antwerp and Brussels, and in 2007 it was bought by Susan and Matthew Weatherbie of Boston, who have promised it to the museum.