The Dormition of the Virgin
The Dormition is a theme used very frequently in many genres: fresco, book illumination, church patrons' icons, illustratig one of the most important feasts of the Oriental Church liturgical calendar. However, the subject is apocryphal. The basic iconographic formula is placed in a schematic architectural space, a draped bier-bed is placed in the foreground on which the Virgin's body is laying, her hands, crossed over the chest, visible or covered by the mantle. The vestments are traditionally colored: a blue tunic and a red mantle.
In the background, standing bye the bier, Jesus, represented almost always in a mandorla, is bearing, with covered hands against His chest, the Virgin's soul, depicted like a swaddled infant. Frequently, in the upper part of the image, the open skies are sketched in a more or less obvious and elaborated manner. Around the bier, the apostles and believers are gathered to pay their last homage. Their postures and gestures reflect a somber sad mood. The number of these secondary characters is not specified, either canonically or iconographically. It depends upon the artist's vision or the size of the surface to be illustrated.
Rare and less numerous iconographic variants of the theme may present the Virgin's soul carried to the skies by an angel, or symbolically bowing in front of an enthroned Jesus. Also, the group of the secondary characters may include women in the background.
The Dormition is a theme used very frequently in many genres: fresco, book illumination, church patrons' icons, illustratig one of the most important feasts of the Oriental Church liturgical calendar. However, the subject is apocryphal. The basic iconographic formula is placed in a schematic architectural space, a draped bier-bed is placed in the foreground on which the Virgin's body is laying, her hands, crossed over the chest, visible or covered by the mantle. The vestments are traditionally colored: a blue tunic and a red mantle.
In the background, standing bye the bier, Jesus, represented almost always in a mandorla, is bearing, with covered hands against His chest, the Virgin's soul, depicted like a swaddled infant. Frequently, in the upper part of the image, the open skies are sketched in a more or less obvious and elaborated manner. Around the bier, the apostles and believers are gathered to pay their last homage. Their postures and gestures reflect a somber sad mood. The number of these secondary characters is not specified, either canonically or iconographically. It depends upon the artist's vision or the size of the surface to be illustrated.
Rare and less numerous iconographic variants of the theme may present the Virgin's soul carried to the skies by an angel, or symbolically bowing in front of an enthroned Jesus. Also, the group of the secondary characters may include women in the background.
