Scènes de la Vie du Christ : Ascension.

The Ascension of Christ, forty days after the Resurrection, marks the completion of Christ's earthly mission and his return to the Father. Di Nardo's panel from the Petit Palais cycle depicts the apostles gazing upward as Christ rises into a gold heaven, hands raised in blessing, the wound marks still visible as proof of his bodily resurrection. For devotional cycles intended to guide meditation through the liturgical year, the Ascension represented both an ending and a promise — the departure of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The upward compositional movement contrasts with the horizontality of the Lamentation and Entombment panels in the same sequence.

Tempera and gold leaf on panel. The ascending Christ is placed in the upper register against a gold field while the apostles occupy the lower zone, the composition divided horizontally to emphasise the separation between earth and heaven. A cloud form surrounding Christ serves as a transitional device between the two registers.