In Assumption of the Virgin (Cerasi Chapel), how is the Description discussed?
The altarpiece is the fulcrum of the decorative program of the chapel due to its subject and spatial position. There is a strong thematic connection with the scene of the Coronation of the Virgin in the central medaillon of the barrel-vault that shows the final episode in the Life of the Virgin after the Assumption. The painting also establishes a dialog with the two Caravaggio canvasses on the lateral walls: the most important figures among the apostles are Saint Peter (the older man on the left) and Saint Paul (on the right) in the foreground whose life story is told by Caravaggio (and also by the side paintings on the vault). The thematic and compositional connections prove that the altarpiece was designed to be looked at as part of a larger ensemble and not as a standalone object.
The rather crowded composition is organized around a triad of figures: the Virgin rising from the empty tomb (surrounded by a retinue of angels) and the two apostles gazing upwards in awe. All three wear robes in bright primary colours: blue over red (Mary), yellow over blue (Peter) and pink over green (Paul). The remaining space around the sarcophagus is filled with nine other apostles, bringing their overall number to eleven. "The stiffened forms and crowded composition [...] have been interpreted as a conscious shift to a 'hyper-idealized' manner that rejects the warmth and painterly qualities of his Bolognese period for a style indebted to ancient sculpture and to Raphael. Still neither ancient reliefs nor Raphael crowded their pictorial fields in this way", says Ann Sutherland Harris.The painting largely follows the iconographic tradition concerning the depiction of the Assumption in Western art. John the Evangelist (on the left) is portrayed as a beardless young man among the older and bearded apostles. One member of the angelic retinue can be identified as Archangel Michael who lifted up Mary's body to heaven. An apostle on the right is looking at the grave linens and the roses that were found in the empty sarcophagus. On the other hand, the prominent position of the principes apostolorum is a nod to local sensitivities.
Mary seems to be projecting forward rather than upwards. It is a device that compensates for the confined environment and the rather low position of the altar. In this way, the Assumption meets the observer far beyond the narrow space of the Cerasi Chapel, ensuring its visibility from the transept, an ideal space for the continuation of Mary's motion. The dynamism, the emotional charge and the integration of the painting into real space are strongly innovative elements which make the panel unequaled among the contemporary altarpieces produced in Rome.
Cerasi Chapel Archangel Michael Raphael right Saint Paul Rome Caravaggio left Ann Sutherland Harris Western art Saint Peter Life of the Virgin Assumption