Coronation of the virgin

Francesco Moretti
painting on glass
1867

Moretti’s circular stained glass window depicting l’Incoronazione della Vergine, (the Coronation of the Virgin) inspired by il Perugino’s Pala di Monteripido (Monteripido Altarpiece now on display in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria) was put on show at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. The Commune of Perugia financed Moretti’s trip to Paris for the occasion to the tune of 600 Italian Lira.

Eduard Didron, A Frenchman who was famous for his glasswork, wrote an account of the Paris Exhibition section devoted to stained glass in which he said the following of Moretti, the only Italian presenting work “He is an enormously talented artist […] who has access to marvellous colours which he uses with consummate art, and has managed to attain perfection with copy of a painting by the master Raphael. […]  Although this medallion is of a relatively large size and some of the portions have a large surface area […] the overall effect is not pale and cold as might have been expected. […] The portraits are painted by such a masterful hand that they almost surpass the original, should we accept that the glass window is a copy,  which hardly seems credible. In conclusion , Moretti has created a true masterpiece” (E. Didron, Les vitraux à l’Exposition Universelle de 1867, Paris, 1868).