The Dormition of the Virgin

This painting of the Dormition of the Virgin—or her three-day sleep before transitioning to heaven—is notable for the inclusion of an angel and a demon at the bottom. Brandishing a sword and a cross, the angel charges at the malign spirit, who is perhaps Satan himself. Symbolizing Mary’s triumph over evil, this iconographic feature is common in the Byzantine tradition, yet extremely rare in western painting.

This panel once formed the central panel of a triptych, painted for the church of Santa Maria dei Pignatelli during the earliest period of the artist’s career. On the side panels were painted full-length representations of St. John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, today in Naples’s Museo Duca di Martina. The triptych’s centerpiece is conspicuously modeled on Riccardo Quartararo’s painting of the same subject, also in Capodimonte.