The Coronation of the Virgin

The present drawing is one of a series excecuted by Domenico on the theme of The Coronation of the Virgin, which do not seem to have been connected with any particular commission, but simply provided an opportunity for him to explore his fertile imagination. Other examples, showing the same fluid lines and free application of wash, are in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (Disegni Veneti dell'Ecole des Beaux-Arts di Parigi, exhib. cat., Venice, Fondazione Cini, 1988, nos. 61-2) and formerly in the collection of Sir John Witt (The John Witt Collection, exhib. cat., London, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1963, no. 42). Domenico's explorations of the theme seem to have grown out of his father Giambattista's work on a fresco of the subject for the Church of the Pietà in Venice between 1754 and 1755.