The Assumption of the Virgin

The Assumption of the Virgin, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, depicts Mary's bodily ascent into Heaven—one of the most theologically and visually dramatic subjects of Quattrocento devotional painting. Painted around 1455, this panel by Neri di Bicci participates in the flourishing iconography of the Assumption that had been given definitive form by artists including Filippo Lippi. The upward movement of the Virgin amid choirs of angels gave Neri a relatively complex compositional challenge by the standards of his usual workshop production.

Mary is depicted in the mandorla of gold, her blue-and-red vestments rendered with the ultramarine and vermilion standard in Florentine workshop practice. The encircling angels are differentiated by their wing colors and facial expressions, each modeled with the basic but competent handling of egg tempera that characterizes Neri's better productions.