The Death of the Virgin

Around 1500, a death in a Dutch household followed set rituals, and the painter placed Mary's death squarely inside them. The room is one his viewers would have recognised: a four-poster bed hung with red curtains, a fire in the hearth, a window of small leaded panes, a wooden bench with cushions, a floor of patterned tiles. The apostles do what a priest and family did at a real deathbed. John places a lighted candle in Mary's hands, the kind given to the dying to hold as a sign of faith, while Peter raises a sprinkler for holy water. Others pray or read from books, and one apostle near the door carries a censer. Through that open door, and through the window above the bench, you can see the pink walls of the houses across the street.