Dormition of the Virgin

In 1344 Prague was given its own archbishop, and that November the foundation stone of a new cathedral, St Vitus, was laid on the castle hill. Behind both stood Charles of Luxembourg, the future Emperor Charles IV, then governing Bohemia while his blind father was still king. This panel was painted in Prague in those same years, around 1340 to 1345. The Virgin Mary lies on her bier among the twelve apostles. By tradition she was only sleeping for three days before she was taken up to heaven. Christ stands among the mourners and blesses her, holding her soul as a tiny child. Painters usually set him apart, floating in a frame of light, and here he simply stands in the crowd, with stylised clouds around him. The three small figures along the bottom edge are probably the people who paid for the panel, which was once part of an altarpiece. It was found in 1922 in the chapel of Košátky Castle, north-east of Prague, where the Kolowrat counts had kept it for centuries. In 1950 a member of the family sold it in New York, and the museum bought it that same year.