The Death of The Virgin

myminifactory

Here Christ, shown with his hand raised in blessing, has returned to transport his mother's soul and body to Heaven upon her death. Some of the apostles are reading prayers, as was recommended around every death bed. On the far right, one apostle holds a censer so another can pour incense into it from an incense boat. This carved relief probably formed part of the support or frame of an altarpiece. These image-bearing panels were set up on or behind the altar in a Christian church. The scene here is the Death of the Virgin, who lies in the centre. It was probably originally surmounted by a scene showing the Assumption of the Virgin, the moment when Christ's mother is carried to Heaven. The figures in this example are closely related to those in a relief depicting the Death of the Virgin in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe. The Karlsruhe relief is believed to have been made in the Upper Rhenish area of Germany, probably about 1430 to 1440. There is another similar relief of the same subject dateable to about 1440 also in the Upper Rhenish area. It is in the chapel of St Nicholas in the Minster, Constance. These similarities suggest that this relief was also made in the Upper Rhenish area.