The Assumption of the Virgin

Bernardo Daddi

ca. 1337–39 · Tempera on wood, gold ground · Robert Lehman Collection

Bernardo Daddi may have trained in the Florentine workshop of Giotto, a pivotal figure in the history of European painting. Daddi fused Giotto’s grandeur and monumentality with a refined grace and lyricism. It has been suggested that while Daddi was responsible for the design of this panel, it was executed by a leading member of his workshop. The panel is likely the upper half of an important altarpiece painted for a chapel in the Cathedral of Prato, near Florence, which houses the highly venerated girdle, or belt, of the Virgin Mary. As evidence of her Assumption, the Virgin lowers her girdle to St. Thomas, whose hands are visible at the panel’s lower edge and who was depicted in the missing lower section of the painting.

Artist

Bernardo Daddi

Date

ca. 1337–39

Medium

Tempera on wood, gold ground

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975