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On the ceiling of the basilica of Santa Maria in Vado, a church in Ferrara, Italy, is a circular canvas nearly three meters in diameter. On it is a depiction of the Virgin Mary being crowned queen of heaven by God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Called Coronation of the Virgin, the painting is believed to be a masterwork of early Baroque artist Carlo Bononi and has hung on the church ceiling since the 1600s, where it remained until 2012. That year, an earthquake struck Ferrara, forcing conservators to remove the painting from the ceiling. It was then leaned against an interior wall of the church, and later returned to its rightful place after restoration.
Despite centuries on the ceiling and some time on the floor, the artwork didn’t show severe damage to its paint layers, with the exception of a network of cracks and some ...
