Death of the Virgin

c. 1400

Master of Heiligenkreuz

(Austrian)

Culture

Austria, possibly Bohemia, early 15th Century

Medium

tempera and oil with gold on panel

Measurements

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.)

Credit Line

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

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Location

111 German and Austrian Gothic

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.