We now proceed to other examples of the treatment of the Assumption.

3.  Taddeo Bartoli, 1413.  He has represented the moment in which the soul is reunited to the body.  Clothed in a starry robe she appears in the very act and attitude of one rising up from a reclining position, which is most beautifully expressed, as if she were partly lifted up upon the expanded many-coloured wings of a cluster of angels, and partly drawn up, as it were, by the attractive power of Christ, who, floating above her, takes her clasped hands in both his.  The intense, yet tender ecstasy in her face, the mild spiritual benignity in his, are quite indescribable, and fix the picture in the heart and the memory as one of the finest religious conceptions extant. (Siena, Palazzo Publico.)

I imagine this action of Christ taking her hands in both his, must be founded on some ancient Greek model, for I have seen the same motif in other pictures, German and Italian; but in none so tenderly or so happily expressed.

4.  Domenico di Bartolo, 1430.  A large altar-piece.  Mary seated on a throne, within a glory of encircling cherubim of a glowing red, and about thirty more angels, some adoring, others playing on musical instruments, is borne upwards.  Her hands are joined in prayer, her head veiled and crowned, and she wears a white robe, embroidered with golden flowers.  Above, in the opening heaven, is the figure of Christ, young and beardless (a l’antique), with outstretched arms, surrounded by the spirits of the blessed.  Below, of a diminutive size, as if seen from a distant height, is the tomb surrounded by the apostles, St. Thomas holding the girdle.  This is one of the most remarkable and important pictures of the Siena school, out of Siena, with which I am acquainted. (Berlin Gal., 1122.)

5.  Ghirlandajo, 1475.  The Virgin stands in star-spangled drapery, with a long white veil, and hands joined, as she floats upwards.  She is sustained by four seraphim. (Florence, S. Maria-Novella.)

6.  Raphael, 1516.  The Virgin is seated within the horns of a crescent moon, her hands joined.  On each side an angel stands bearing a flaming torch; the empty tomb and the eleven apostles below.  This composition is engraved after Raphael by an anonymous master (Le Maitre au de).  It is majestic and graceful, but peculiar for the time.  The two angels, or rather genii, bearing torches on each side, impart to the whole something of the air of a heathen apotheosis.

7.  Albert Durer.  The apostles kneel or stand round the empty tomb; while Mary, soaring upwards, is received into heaven by her Son; an angel on each side.

8.  Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1525.  Mary, in a white robe spangled with stars, rises upward as if cleaving the air in an erect position, with her hands extended, but not raised, and a beautiful expression of mild rapture, as if uttering the words attributed to her, “My heart is ready;” many angels, some of whom bear tapers, around her.  One angel presents the end of the girdle to St. Thomas; the other apostles and the empty tomb lower down. (Vercelli, S. Cristofore.)