Explore the Analysis of this artwork, The Coronation of Saint Rosalia.
In both the Coronation and his 1624-1625 paintings of the saint, van Dyck drew heavily on prints after works by Sicilian artists, though mainly for themes and details rather than style or composition. The Coronation depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by saint Paul and saint Peter, with their usual attributes of a sword and keys. The Christ Child crowns Saint Rosalia, who is on her kneels, similarly as in the engraving in Cascini's Vitae Sanctae Rosaliae. That engraving is derived from a lost 1494 painting by Tommaso De Vigilia once in Santa Rosalia church in Bivona in western Sicily.Rosalia's rich brocaded mantle is unprecedented in earlier Flemish art showing the saint, which had usually shown her alone in a poor Franciscan-type habit. This detail is probably also drawn from a print but may also show the influence of the earlier c. 1506 oil on panel painting by Riccardo Quartararo, showing Rosalia in royal clothing adoring the enthroned Virgin and Child.
Sicilian works are not believed to have influenced the composition or style of the Coronation, which instead show the Venetian influence van Dyck had picked up during his time in Italy, a decisive influence on the formation of his style. The brightly-lit colours and the diagonal formed by the Madonna, Child and Saint Rosalia are very similar to Paolo Veronese's 1575 Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, clearly van Dyck's main model for Coronation.  The skull, lily and roses are all typical attributes of Saint Rosalia, with the last two not only shown woven into the crown but also carried in the basket of the figure at the extreme right of the painting (probably quoting Titian's c. 1550 Prado Salome) and held by the cherubs in the top right-hand corner.
Franciscan Bivona sword keys brocade Paolo Veronese Titian Tommaso De Vigilia saint Peter Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine Riccardo Quartararo saint Paul Saint Rosalia