ascension

Bartolomé Bermejo depicted the Ascension around 1480, showing Christ's triumphant ascent to heaven witnessed by the apostles. Bermejo's work in Aragon and Catalonia brought unprecedented technical mastery to Spanish painting. His command of oil painting technique rivaled the greatest Netherlandish masters. 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. The tension between Gothic grace and Renaissance structure gives art of this period a distinctive energy.

Oil on panel with Bermejo's extraordinary luminous technique. The supernatural event is rendered with atmospheric depth and chromatic brilliance that demonstrate his supreme technical command.