The Assumption of the Virgin
Sizes
About this painting
This panel began as one face of a shared support: the reverse showed the miracle that founded the basilica, an August snowfall tracing Santa Maria Maggiore's plan on the Esquiline Hill. That face showed the church founded on earth; this one shows its reward, Mary's body carried into heaven.
Columns recur across the altarpiece's surviving panels, the Colonna family's device, a patron's mark though no contract names him.
Perri Lee Roberts read her angels as Gregory's nine hierarchies, the pope alongside. In 1644 the panel was sawn from its twin at Palazzo Farnese and catalogued as a Fra Angelico.
Sources: National Gallery, London, Gordon 2003, 'Santa Maria Maggiore Altarpiece' catalogue entry · National Gallery, London, Gordon 2003 (commission history) · National Gallery, London, Gordon 2003 · Strehlke and Tucker technical study, cited in National Gallery, London, Gordon 2003 · National Gallery, London, Gordon 2003 (dispersal history) · The National Gallery, London, Masolino, 'A Pope (Saint Gregory?) and Saint Matthias', NG5963.
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 22,492 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.