The Assumption of the Virgin

Luca di Tomme's Assumption of the Virgin, dating to around 1362, depicts the moment when Mary was taken bodily into heaven, a subject of particular theological significance in the Gothic period before its formal dogmatic definition. Luca was among the most prolific Sienese painters of the post-plague generation, and his treatment of this subject reflects the intensified Marian devotion that characterized the decades following the Black Death. The painting's presence at Yale testifies to the widespread collecting of Sienese Gothic panels by American institutions in the early twentieth century.

Executed in tempera and gold on panel, the composition follows the traditional Sienese arrangement of the apostles gathered below as the Virgin ascends in a golden mandorla. Luca's refined color harmonies and the lyrical curves of the drapery demonstrate his fidelity to the decorative elegance of the Sienese school.