The Death of the Virgin

Early in the 15th century Venetian painters began to work on canvas instead of wooden panels, and the museum counts this picture among the first examples. The advantages were practical. A canvas was easier to carry, and it suffered none of the troubles of wood, no woodworm and no splitting along the grain. In a city built on water, where paintings often travelled by boat, that counted for a good deal.

The subject is the Death of the Virgin, with the apostles gathered round her bier, as the old legends told it. The museum also sees in it Giambono's first contact with the new humanist painting of Florence, probably through Andrea del Castagno, a young Florentine who was working in Venice, where in 1442 he signed frescoes in the church of San Zaccaria. A cleaning in the 19th century did the surface real harm, and the losses are still visible, yet the museum still calls the picture a very important work.