Polyptych with Death of the Virgin

Bernard van Orley painted this Polyptych with the Death of the Virgin around 1520, a major multi-panel altarpiece depicting the Dormition with related scenes from Mary's life and Passion cycle. The polyptych format—multiple hinged panels that could be opened and closed according to liturgical occasions—was the most ambitious vehicle for Flemish altarpiece painting, allowing complex theological programs to be presented across an extended pictorial field. Van Orley's polyptych commissions demonstrate his ability to organize large-scale programs combining devotional, narrative, and donor elements into coherent visual arguments for Marian devotion. As court painter to Margaret of Austria, Van Orley's polyptych altarpieces represented the highest standard of the Habsburg Netherlands' devotional patronage.

The multi-panel format follows the late medieval altarpiece tradition while incorporating Renaissance spatial construction and figure types. Van Orley's technique combines Netherlandish precision in surface detail with Italianate monumentality in the figure groupings.