The Coronation of the Virgin

Mary kneels between God the Father and Christ as they lower a crown upon her head, the dove of the Holy Spirit above, the whole group borne up on banks of pink-and-grey cloud and cherubim. Velazquez paints the Coronation in soft, glowing color, the composition a gentle heart-shaped curve of figures. Made for the oratory of the queen of Spain and now in the Prado, it is among his relatively few religious works, the courtly portraitist turning his tender naturalism to a celestial subject - heaven imagined with quiet, intimate warmth.