Death of the Virgin Mary

The Master of the Saint Lambrecht Votive Altarpiece's Death of the Virgin Mary, painted around 1455 and held in the Collection Hirscher, is a panel from the devotional altarpiece complex associated with Saint Lambrecht monastery in Styria, an important center of Austrian late Gothic monastic art. The Death of the Virgin — or Dormition — depicted the Virgin Mary's peaceful passing from mortal life, surrounded by the assembled Apostles who had been miraculously transported to her bedside, with Christ appearing to receive her soul.

Tempera on panel. The Dormition composition is organized around the Virgin's bed at center, surrounded by the twelve Apostles in attitudes of grief and reverence. Christ or an angel often appears above receiving the Virgin's soul as a small child-figure.