Coronation of the Virgin

This is a rare thing: a religious picture by Velázquez, a painter the world knows for popes, princes and dwarfs at the Spanish court. He made it in the mid-1630s, probably for the private oratory of Queen Elisabeth of France, wife of Philip IV, in the royal palace in Madrid, and it turned out to be his last religious painting. The Virgin is crowned Queen of Heaven, God the Father on one side and Christ on the other lowering the crown together while the dove of the Holy Spirit blazes above. Velázquez fits the three of them into a broad inverted triangle so the composition feels balanced and calm. What sets it apart from other Baroque altarpieces is how natural it stays; Mary looks young and unforced, and the deep reds and blues are handled with the same soft touch he gave his portraits.