Cocktails with a Curator: Paolo Veneziano’s “Coronation of the Virgin"

In this week’s episode of Cocktails with a Curator, explore Paolo Veneziano’s Coronation of the Virgin with Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon. This magnificent panel—the most important work by the14th-century Venetian outside Europe—presents the Virgin and Christ in sumptuous garments and a choir of angels playing portable organs, lutes, trumpets, tambourines, and other instruments. At Frick Madison, the panel is displayed in a room dedicated to “gold grounds,” early Italian religious paintings that deploy precious materials to evoke the divine. In recognition of Paolo's use of gold and silver, this week’s complementary cocktail is the Mint Julep, traditionally drunk in a silver cup.

Cocktail Recipe

Mint Julep
2 oz. Bourbon
2 teaspoons of water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 crushed mint leaves
serve on ice and garnish with mint

Audiences under 21 are encouraged to join with a non-alcoholic drink.

Mocktail

Mint Ginger
1/2 cup mint leaves
ginger ale
1 teaspoon of sugar
serve on ice