At Musée Pierre-de-Luxembourg in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon to see Enguerrand Quarton’s amazing altarpiece ‘The Coronation of the Virgin’. It was commissioned in 1453 by Jean de Montagny, a canon in Avignon, for the Carthusian monastery of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.

Enguerrand Quarton ‘The Coronation of the Virgin’ (1453 – 54)

The painting is in two main sections. In the upper section the Virgin is crowned by the Holy Trinity. Unusually, God the Father and Jesus Christ are depicted as mirror images with the same form, with the Holy Spirit between them. They are surrounded by groups of angels painted in a vivid red colour. This near-symmetry is a feature of the painting and occurs in several places.

In the lower section, just left of the crucified Christ, Mont Saint Victoire, a notable local feature of the landscape, rises above the horizon, whilst to Christ’s right is the kneeling figure of the donor. Below the cross are depictions of the cities of Rome and Jerusalem and under them is the Last Judgement. Angels receive the souls of the saved beneath Jerusalem, whilst the damned are tormented in hell beneath Rome.