Assumption of the Virgin

Veronese made this to be looked up at. It was set into the ceiling of the dining hall of a convent on the Giudecca, the long island across the water from the main city, where the friars of San Giacomo ate their meals beneath it. Painted around 1585 and more than four metres tall, it shows the Virgin Mary carried up to heaven after her death while the apostles crowd below, craning after her. That upward pull was the whole point. A ceiling picture had to work seen from underneath, so Veronese tipped the figures back and opened the sky above them, letting the eye climb from the startled men on the ground to the small bright figure rising into the light. The convent is long gone and the canvas now hangs upright on a wall, so the great foreshortening that once loomed over the tables reads a little differently. Look for the apostle throwing his arms up as she goes.