Egg tempera and gold leaf on a shaped wood panel, 17″ x 13″.
In the traditional icon of the Dormition of Mary, the Mother of God dies on her bier, surrounded by grieving apostles. Larger compositions include the miraculous transport of the apostles to her bedside, and a scene of the enthroned Mother of God rising into paradise.
Here, that one scene is isolated into its own composition: she sits on a rainbow, as four angels carrying to the gates of heaven. Based on a stained glass window by Cimabue, and 16th century Greek frescoes.