ation" now in the Louvre; formerly it stood
over the high altar of the Church of St. Dominick at Fiesole, where
Angelico had been nurtured, and made his profession as monk. The
composition is conceived as a grand regal ceremony, but the beings who
figure in it are touched with a truly celestial grace. The Redeemer,
crowned himself, and wearing the ermine mantle of an earthly monarch,
is seated on a magnificent throne, under a Gothic canopy, to which
there is an ascent of nine steps. He holds the crown, which he is in
the act of placing, with both hands, on the head of the Virgin, who
kneels before him, with features of the softest and most delicate
beauty, and an expression of divine humility. Her face, seen in
profile, is partly shaded by a long transparent veil, flowing over
her ample robe of a delicate crimson, beneath which is a blue tunic.
On each side a choir of lovely angels, clothed from head to foot in
spangled tunics of azure and rose-colour, with shining wings, make
celestial music, while they gaze with looks of joy and adoration
towards the principal group. Lower down on the right of the throne
are eighteen, and on the left twenty-two, of the principal patriarchs,
apostles, saints, and martyrs, among whom the worthies of Angelico's
own community, St. Dominick and St. Peter Martyr, are of course
conspicuous. At the foot of the throne kneel on one side St.
Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Charlemagne, the royal saint; St.
Nicholas; and St. Thomas Aquinas holding a pen (the great literary
saint of the Dominican order, and author of the Office of the Virgin);
on the left we have a group of virgins, St. Agnes, St. Catherine with
her wheel, St. Catherine of Siena, her habit spangled with stars;
St. Cecilia crowned with her roses, and Mary Magdalene, with her
long golden hair.[1] Beneath this great composition runs a border or
predella, in seven compartments, containing in the centre a Pieta, and
on each side three small subjects from the history of St. Dominick,
to whom the church, whence it was taken, is dedicated. The spiritual
beauty of the heads, the delicate tints of the colouring, an ineffable
charm of mingled brightness and repose shed over the whole, give to
this lovely picture an effect like that of a church hymn, sung at
some high festival by voices tuned in harmony--"blest voices, uttering
joy!"

[Footnote 1: See "Legends of the Monastic Orders," and "Sacred and
Legendary Art," for an account of all these