Coronation of the Virgin (Pollaiuolo)

The altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin by Piero del Pollaiuolo behind the high altar in the church of Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano in Tuscany, Italy, was painted in 1483.

[1] As the painter's only signed and dated work it is a key piece of evidence in the question of which paintings to attribute to Piero and which to his more famous brother, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, which has become a contentious subject in recent years.

Very hostile comments by Bernard Berenson in 1903 called it "a picture of unalloyed mediocrity, with scarcely a touch of charm to repay the absence of life and vigour"; this did not encourage detailed study by others.

"What they all have in common is a pronounced taste for precious effects, the highly efficacious imitation of jewels, brocades, velvets, with an illusionistic and tactile treatment based on the extensive and experimental use of oil-based binders (at the height of the reign of tempera in Florence), in open emulation of the Flemish masters".

[15] Charles Seymour Jr. compares it to the Primavera of Sandro Botticelli, "of virtually the same date", finding "Proto-Mannerism" in these and the slightly earlier sculpture of Mino da Fiesole.