The Assumption of the Virgin

Matteo di Giovanni was the most prolific painter in Siena during the second half of the fifteenth century, and his Assumption of the Virgin from 1474 is one of several treatments he gave this subject throughout his career, including the famous altarpieces in Sant'Agostino, Siena and in Asciano. The Assumption — the bodily raising of the Virgin to heaven — was a doctrine of special importance to the Sienese, whose city had long placed itself under the Virgin's special protection. Matteo's treatment typically shows Mary ascending within a mandorla of angels while the apostles gesticulate in astonishment below, a format that gave him scope to arrange a complex multi-figure composition across a vertical panel. His 1474 version precedes the more elaborate Asciano and Borghi altarpieces and represents his developing command of the subject.

Matteo di Giovanni manages the compositional challenge of the Assumption — vertically divided between heavenly and earthly zones — through a clear colour division: the celestial region uses cooler blues and gold against darker, earthier tones below. The Virgin's mandorla is populated with small seraphim and cherubim in a crowded angelic chorus. Figure modelling shows his smooth Sienese approach, with carefully blended flesh tones and flowing, rhythmic drapery.