The Coronation of the Virgin

In 1581 Antonio Ramírez de Montalvo, of a Spanish family settled in Florence and once first chamberlain to Cosimo I de' Medici, commissioned this altarpiece for the high altar of Santa Maria degli Angeli, a church under his family's patronage. Allori took 12 years over it. The date 1593 stands next to his name on the body of the vase of flowers at the bottom. Above, in the presence of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, Christ raises the crown, and Mary bends to kiss his hand before he crowns her. The crowd of angels scattering flowers is a nod to the church's name, Saint Mary of the Angels. On the ribbon wound around the vase runs a line from the Song of Songs, the words of the bridegroom to his bride, come from Lebanon, you shall be crowned.