Pinacoteca Room X

The Crowning of the Virgin associated with Monteluce has two registers. Above, Christ crowns Mary. Below, apostles gather around a flower-filled tomb. The commission began with Raphael, but when he died in 1520 it was unfinished. His assistants Giulio Romano and Gianfrancesco Penni delivered the work in 1525. The long history of that commission differs from the stories shown within it. The altarpiece’s parts were painted on different occasions and joined together. A calm arrangement can conceal years of changing contracts and workshop decisions. Titian’s Madonna and Child in Glory with Saints was made for a Venetian church in the early 1520s. Veronese’s later Vision of St Helen approaches a sacred subject through a sleeping figure. Helen rests her head on her hand, while a cross appears with a winged child. The picture follows the tradition of a dream leading her to the True Cross. You can compare an assembly, a heavenly appearance and a private vision within the same room.