Death of the Virgin

This work depicts the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, a theme that derives from apocryphal scriptures, of which the most important is the text headed Transitus Mariae by an anonymous author (Pseudo-Meliton), which was altered by Gregory of Tours (538–594). On the basis of these sources Jacobus da Voragine edited his version of the events for the Golden Legend (legenda aurea), a collection of saints’ lives. All sources distinguish various events in a chronological sequence: Mary’s wish to be allowed to die among the apostles, patriarchs and angels, her actual dormition, the funeral, the entombment and her resurrection and ascent into heaven. On the Berlin panel, Giotto made a synthesis of several elements of these events in one single depiction. The subject of the painting in this case should therefore be understood less as a historia (pictorial narrative) than as a representation of the
funeral cult rendered without a chronological continuum, a depiction of the ritual of communal commemoration.
Given this background, it is not surprising that Giotto’s composition contains numerous references to the medieval burial ritual. Moreover, the panel shows the participating figures in different categories: alongside the apostles, an important role is given to the angels in particular. In representations of obsequies and in the iconography of funeral monuments they appear as officiants and – following the text of the Apocalypse – are the givers of incense. Here, an angel in the right-hand part of the picture performs this task. With puffed-out cheeks, he blows into a censer in order to ignite the embers within it. Also present, on the left margin of the scene, are women, Mary’s companions. They can be regarded simultaneously as references to women in the cortège in an actual burial ritual. On each side of the sarcophagus, there also stands a pair of angels with special twisted candles, which were lit for
the blessing of the dead. This was followed by the lament for the deceased. On the Berlin panel, the apostles placed prominently above Mary’s head are performing gestures of mourning. After this, the clergy assembled for the vigil, the Penitential Psalms were read, and the body was sprinkled with holy water. We see Saint Peter on the left reciting from the psalms, while Saint Andrew, clothed in green, carries the aspergillum with the holy water from the right. In the subsequent procession, the body was accompanied to the grave with prayers and song.
That all of these aspects of the funeral scene can be identified on the painting is explained by the fact that this low-gabled dossal was placed on a side altar on the screen in the Florentine Ognissanti monastery of the Umiliati order. The altar was explicitly assigned to the offices of burial and memorial services. Graves in the floor of the church were placed directly in front of it. The painting was thus thematically devoted to the liturgical ritual that took place in front of it, while the ceremony itself was visually enhanced by the events depicted on the altarpiece. The Dormition of the Virgin Mary is associated with Christians’ expectation of life after death. The cult of death and commemoration was of great importance to the Umiliati, as this pastoral activity was linked to a significant income that the monks received through a share of the deceased person’s estate. When the cemetery in the inner city of
Florence was dissolved in 1296, the Ognissanti monastery outside the city centre became one of the leading churches for burials for a period of some years, as a large cemetery that could be extended indefinitely was situated in its immediate vicinity. The commission for this painting, which was of significance for the existence of the Umiliati order, was given by the monks to Giotto di Bondone, a leading Florentine painter, who executed it in about 1310 at the pinnacle of his mature period of work.
The three-dimensional appearance of the scene is created through the positioning of weighty figures and their arrangement like staggered columns. By way of introduction, one of the apostles kneels at the sarcophagus, which is set parallel to the edge of the painting, with the body of Mary stretched out upon it. Behind this, the figure of Christ, standing in the middle with a light-coloured robe, is flanked by two apostles wearing green togas. In its pink and cream-coloured clothing, the form of Christ is linked to the pairs of angels standing to the left and right in front of the sarcophagus: by means of such chromatic harmonies, the foreground and middle ground are skilfully interwoven. From the figure of the angel kneeling in front of the sarcophagus at the centre, the story unfolds to the sides, to the blue of the angel on the left who is wringing his hands and to the angel on the right who is pressing his elbows into his cape. The pronounced rendering of corporeality is one element that distinguishes Giotto’s figures from the Byzantine formal language that preceded him. For this reason, the artist has been regarded since the beginnings of art historical tradition as the father of modern painting.
In the course of its rich history, the paint layer of the Berlin altarpiece has suffered considerably. During various alterations to the Ognissanti church (the removal of the screen and the Baroque remodelling of the interior in the 16th century) it was taken from its altar, was eventually sold, and in the 19th century came to England to the collection of Reverend Walter Davenport Bromley. In 1913,
it was purchased by the London art dealer Robert Langton Douglas, who sold it to the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein. Following initial discussions of the authorship of this important work, it is now regarded without dispute as a work by the great Florentine master’s own hand, as the colour composition and the style of the figures confirm. Stephan Weppelmann | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019