the danish ambassador to britain jens wolff visited the oratory in 1785 and mentioned "the absurd effect provoked by the zeal of some ignorant fanatic who in the church of madonna della scala nailed a silver crown onto the virgin painted by correggio and thus disfigured an incomparable work by an act of the grossest barbarity". germaine de staël, in her 1807 novel "corinne", also described the fresco as "perhaps the only painting which knows how to give to lowered eyes a raised and penetrating expression as if they were raised to heaven. the veil falling across her gaze takes nothing away from the feeling or thought, but makes them more enchanted; gives them a heavenly mystery. the painting has almost come off the wall and you can see the colour tremble as if a breath could make it fall".