Death of the Virgin

c. 1400

Master of Heiligenkreuz

(Austrian)

Austria, possibly Bohemia, early 15th Century

Image: 66 x 53.3 cm (26 x 21 in.); Framed: 74 x 61.5 x 4.5 cm (29 1/8 x 24 3/16 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 71 x 54 cm (27 15/16 x 21 1/4 in.)

Gift of the Friends of The Cleveland Museum of Art in memory of John Long Severance 1936.496

Location: 111 German and Austrian Gothic

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Did You Know?

The artist was named for a painting that was once in the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz in Austria.

Description

Christ’s apostles visit the Virgin upon her deathbed. Saint Peter, wearing white robes and the papal tiara, performs funerary rites, reciting prayers and sprinkling holy water on the Virgin’s body. Above, angels engraved upon the golden background celebrate the assumption of the Virgin heavenward. Once joined to another panel titled The Death of Saint Clare (National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), this double representation of saintly deaths may have been used in funerary services in the convent of Clarissan nuns for which it was made.