1590 · Musei Vaticani, Vatican

The iconographic scheme of the Dormition was formed in Byzantium in the course of the ninth and tenth centuries. The present icon shows Christ in glory, escorted by candle-bearing angels, within a mandorla surmounted by a seraph with flaming wings. Bearing in his arms the soul of his mother in the form of a newborn infant in swaddling clothes, Christ prepares to take her with him into the glory of heaven.Show more