The Entombment of the Virgin with Saint Bartholomew (left) and a Female Saint (right)

The Entombment of the Virgin with Saints Bartholomew and a female saint from 1455 depicts the rarely shown scene of Mary's burial, distinct from the more commonly depicted Assumption. Giovanni di Paolo's choice of this unusual subject reflects the rich Marian devotional culture of fifteenth-century Siena. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays brilliant, jewel-like color, gold grounds, lyrical figure types of Gothic grace, perspectival experiments that create strange compressed spaces, intense narrative invention.

The composition arranges the mourning saints around the Virgin's body with ceremonial gravity, using Giovanni di Paolo's characteristic vivid palette and expressive figural gestures.