Beni Culturali Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Dormitio Virginis

Dormitio Virginis
Object belonging
One's own
Category
Wood sculpture
City
Rome
Location
Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
Specific location
Room 10
Inventory
PV 07661
Material and technique
Sculpted and carved tilia wood and walnut (column), paint, gilding
Author
Augsburg School
Dating
c.1520
Dimensions
91 x 71.3 x 6 cm.
Origin
Tower-Wurts Collection (1933)
Image copyright
SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This bass-relief, which came from the Wurts collection (W 99), was in all probability part of an altarpiece, perhaps dedicated to the Virgin. It depicts the Death of the Virgin, as told in the apochryphal book of the Transitus Mariae, and later in the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. The scene is set inside, with only eight apostles, all in different poses and richly dressed (one is also wearing a head covering). Mary is lying on the bed, which has a large bedhead decorated with golden plant-like motifs, engraved and sculpted in relief on the wood. Mary’s eyes are closed and her face, in white lead and cinnabar (FORS analysis by the ICVBC-CNR in Florence and XRF by the Laboritorio Mida in Rome), evokes her serenity, showing no fear of what awaits her. An apostle is kneeling beside her and shows her a book of prayer, with a malachite green cover, to utter a final prayer to God before ascending to Heaven. In the upper right of the relief, there is a simple black and white column carved in walnut (Julgans cfr. regia), as technical-scientific analysis carried out in 2009 by IVALSA-CNR in Florence confirmed, while the rest is made from tilia (Tilia sp.). Hermanin (1948) believed it to be by the 16th century Tyrolean school, but it was then dated to Ausburg in c. 1520 by Santangelo (1954), who identified the hand of an artist influenced by the more clearly Italianised work of Adolf Daucher (Ulm? 1460 – Augsburg 1523), who trained under Jorg Syrlin and Gregor Erhart (cfr. P.M. Halm, Adolf Dauche und die Fuggerkapelle bei St. Anna in Augsburg, München und Leipzig 1921), and by artists in southern Franconia.

Grazia Maria Fachechi 

Bibliography

F. Hermanin, Il Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 1948, p. 269; A. Santangelo (ed.), Il museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, pp. 59-60.

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Page created 15/01/2009, last modify 15/11/2010