Since today we celebrate the Saturday Office of Our Lady, here is a polyptych representing Her coronation as the Queen of Heaven, painted in the 1390s by the Florentine artist Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni (active ca. 1369-1415), a splendid example of the richly decorative style known as the International Gothic. (Click the image to enlarge it.)
To the left of the central panel of the Coronation are depicted Saints Michael the Archangel, Benedict and John the Baptist; behind them, Ss Ambrose and his contemporary Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence; Ss Margaret, Stephen and Apollonia (above St Michael), and the Apostles James the Greater, Peter and Andrew (above John the Baptist). On the right side are Saints John the Evangelist, Lawrence and Julian; behind them, Bernard, a bishop of Parma and member of the Vallumbrosian Order (died ca. 1266), and Nicholas; above Nicholas, Ss Catherine, John Gualbert and Agnes; above John the Evangelist, Ss Anthony the Abbot, Mary Magdalene and Lucy.
Above the three large sections are depicted various prophets, but the writing on their banderoles is not real, and they cannot be specifically identified. The cuspids, which were added later, show the Annunciation in two parts, left and right (a very common arrangement in Florentine altarpieces) and the Madonna and Child in the middle.
The predella is unusual in that the episodes depicted in it are not a continual narration; each one depicts a story from the life of a different sacred person. On the far left, St Benedict chases away a devil that was sitting on a stone, preventing it from being used in the building of a church; he and his fellow monks are wearing the Vallumbrosian habit. Next to it is the baptism of Christ, most likely chosen because St John is one of the principal patrons of Florence.
In the center, the Dormition of the Virgin...
followed by the torments of St Anthony, and in the last panel, a man is converted by the prayers of St Stephen, symbolized by showing the martyr rescuing him from hell. This is one of the many miracles attributed to his intercession by St Augustine in The City of God XXII, 8.
The hymn for Lauds in the Office of Our Lady, O gloriosa Domina (following the old text.)
A polyphonic setting of the antiphon of the Benedictus, by a little-known English composer of the later 15th century, Richard Mower. “Beáta Dei Génitrix María, Virgo perpetua, templum Dómini, sacrarium Spíritus Sancti, sola sine exemplo placuisti Dómino nostro Jesu Christo: ora pro pópulo, intérveni pro clero, intercéde pro devóto femíneo sexu. – O blessed Mary, Mother of God, Virgin for ever, temple of the Lord, sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, thou along, with no example before thee, didst please our Lord Jesus Christ; pray for the people, plead for the clergy, make intercession for all women vowed to God.”
