THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN ALTARPIECE

HISTORY 

We do not know how or indeed the exact moment when this altarpiece arrived in Rentería. Since no mention of it ever appeared  was ever made in documentation until the year 1750, this lack of information has given rise to several different theories:

The oldest theory reflects a story handed down orally from generation to generation in which the altarpiece could have been donated by María de Lezo to the parish church of this small town in the province of Guipuzcoa where her husband had been born. While her husband held the post as doctor to the English court, she herself held the position of Lady-in-Waiting to Catherine of Aragon, the wife of king Henry VIII.

Recently, Périer d’Ieteren has determined that the iconography of the main reliefs and the interpretation of other partially conserved reliefs correspond to the doctrine propagated by the Trinitarian Order. This could mean that the altarpiece might well have been originally destined to a convent or monastery of that particular Order or one belonging to Augustinian monks, quite possibly to the Monastery of what is now the Convent of the Holy Trinity in the town of Rentería. 

Lastly, neither may we discard the hypothesis that some local merchant or trader acquired the altarpiece in Flanders, as was documented in other, similar instances, and then later donated it to the parish church that also happened to worship the patron saint appearing in the central relief on the altarpiece.