Dormition of the Virgin

The Master of the Drapery Studies, named for a group of distinctive preparatory drawings, was an anonymous painter active in the Middle Rhine region around 1475-1500. This Dormition of the Virgin dates to around 1480 and depicts the moment of the Virgin Mary's death surrounded by the apostles, a subject of particular importance in Marian devotion. The master's works are found across German and Polish collections. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting.

Oil on panel with the carefully rendered drapery folds that give this anonymous master his name. The crowded deathbed scene follows established Northern European iconography for the Dormition.