Le Couronnement de la Vierge

The goldsmiths of Florence paid for this altarpiece in the late 1480s, for their chapel in the church of San Marco, and you can feel their trade in it. The whole upper half is a ring of gold, angels wheeling around the Virgin as God sets a crown on her head, one of the largest and most golden things Botticelli ever painted. Down on the ground stand four saints, and among them is Eligius, the patron of goldsmiths himself, a nod to the men who footed the bill. This came after the mythologies that had made Botticelli famous, when he was taking on big public commissions. Below the main scene runs a narrow strip with small episodes from the saints' lives, painted in his quick nervous line.