Literary accounts with more detail, such as the presence of the Apostles, appeared in late medieval works such as the Golden Legend, and were followed by artists.[3] By the end of the Middle Ages, large and crowded
altarpieces gave the artist the opportunity to show his virtuosity in composition, colouring and figure poses. After the
Reformation, it was used to assert the Catholic position, rejected by Protestants.[4]
Normally accompanied or carried by angels (but not usually carried by Christ, as in Orthodox icons) the Virgin Mary rises passively heavenward, where she is to be crowned by Christ, while the Apostles below surround her empty tomb as they stare up in awe.
God the Father or Christ (as in the Orthodox Dormition) may be seen in the heavens above. She may be surrounded with an almond-shaped
mandorla. Her hands are usually clasped in prayer in medieval images, but later may be thrown wide, as she gazes up, as in
Titian's highly influential
altarpiece for the Frari Church (1515–18) in
Venice, which agitated the previously decorous apostles.[5] Examples include works by
El Greco,
Rubens (several compositions),[6]Annibale Caracci, and
Nicolas Poussin, the last replacing the Apostles with
putti throwing flowers into the tomb.[7]
Iconographic details
Some versions show the Virgin dropping her belt, the
Girdle of Thomas, to
Thomas the Apostle (best known for his
Doubting Thomas episode) as she rises; this was to give him tangible proof of what he had seen, given his earlier scepticism.[8] The "girdle" was a major
relic of the Middles Ages, naturally existing in several versions. In a miniature by the
Master of James IV of Scotland (1510s), an angel passes it down to Thomas. This also has the unusual scene of the funeral procession with the Apostles.[9]
Rubens introduced two women, perhaps meant to be
Martha and Mary, kneeling by the
sarcophagus or bending over it. Having apparently unwrapped the shroud, they are usually holding it and collecting the roses found within. This motif was often included by later Flemish artists.[10]
Although the final age of Mary is not given in the
New Testament, from the Gospel evidence she was at least in her forties, and the Golden Legend gives her age at death as sixty or seventy-two.[11] In paintings of the
Crucifixion of Jesus and the following events, she is normally depicted as a fairly old woman. But most Assumptions give her a youthful or mature appearance, with exceptions like the
Panciatichi Assumption by
Andrea del Sarto, of c. 1522–23. By contrast the apostles are very often depicted as old men, with the youngest, Saint
John, merely in his prime.[12] From the later 16th century some images show a more intimate depiction in the in aria type of sacra conversatione, with a few selected saints replacing the crowd of apostles, and often the Virgin hovering not much above them.[13]
The alternative Catholic scene from the end of the Virgin Mary's early life is the Death of the Virgin, which was more compatible with the
Dormition of the Theotokos in
Eastern Orthodox art and theology. Most treatments showed her lying in bed, surrounded by the
Twelve Apostles, again reflecting the Golden Legend.[14] Some painters show both scenes, one above the other. Catholic doctrine, still emerging when most of these were painted, has declined to specify whether Mary had died before her bodily Assumption, although the slightly varying accounts given one after the other in late versions of the Golden Legend agree that she did, and was placed in a tomb, from which she was raised up three days later.[11]
Though once common in Catholic art, the last major treatment of the Death of the Virgin by itself was
Caravaggio's
painting in the Louvre, who caused a stir by depicting her as an untidy and realistic corpse, which some considered a breach of decorum, though compatible with the doctrine of the Church.[15]
The Assumption of the Virgin, with
the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Adoration of the Magi, the Ascension of Christ, Saint Mark and an Angel, and Saint Luke and an Ox by
Joachim Patinir, c. 1510–1518[21]
Assumption of the Virgin (L'Assomption) by
Jacques Callot, c. 1592–1635[22]
Baumstark, Reinhold, Liechtenstein: The Princely Collections, 1985, Editors: Bradford D. Kelleher, John P. O'Neill, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sammlungen des Regierenden Fürsten von Liechtenstein,
ISBN978-0870993855,
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