Coronation of the Virgin

This work shows fragments from the same altarpiece which has previously been broken up. The largest shows Christ crowning the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven. The other panels show angels playing different instruments, including the organ, the fiddle, the lute, and the gittern. Variatians of the pattern of the throne hanging were very popular with Biondo, whilst the drapery on both Christ and Mary is a variation of an arabesque pattern of Persian origin which first appears in Italian painting in the circle of Bernardo Daddi in the 1340's This is one of the artworks presented by the Liverpool Royal Institution. Liverpool’s economic development grew directly from Britain’s involvement with transatlantic slavery: the kidnapping, enslavement and forced migration of people from West Africa to the Americas and many to the Caribbean. Many members of the Royal Institution made their fortunes directly through the trade or indirectly through the wider economy. This wealth was largely how they were able to bring rare art and treasures, such as this, to the city