Bartolomeo Vivarini
The Death of the Virgin

Altarpiece for a chapel in Padua, 1484
Tempera on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 50.229.1, Gift of Robert Lehman, 1950

Twelve apostles surround the bier and watch as Christ takes up his mother's soul, holding it before him in a possible allusion to "Throne of Mercy" images of the Trinity.

Of those kneeling in front, the first apostle on the left is St. Paul (balding from the forehead); on his right is St. Peter (balding from the crown). St. John the Evangelist is the beardless man on the other side of the bier.

Standing at left in a dalmatic, St. Lawrence holds his gridiron. Another deacon saint stands on the right, also in a dalmatic.

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Photographed at the Metropolitan by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.