La iconografía de la Asunción de la Virgen María a la luz de sus fuentes. Análisis de ocho pinturas del Quattrocento italiano

he subject of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to the heaven is based on several apocryphal legends (documented since the 4 Thessalonica, Saint John of Damascus and Andrew of Crete, as well as in comments of other theologians. All those literary sources, apocryphal and canonical, constitute the doctrinal basis on which the Church, on the Byzantine East and the European West, will base the liturgical feasts as well as the iconography of the Death and the Assumption of the Mother of God. The iconography of the Mary’s Death, almost inevitable in the Byzantine art since the 11 century, will begin to acquire some relevance in Europe since the 12 to the one of Jesus Christ in three characteristic subjects: the Death, the Assumption and the Coronation of Mary. Through the analysis of several Italian paintings of the Quattrocento, our Communication aims to show that such literary sources constitute the “norm” that inspires in a direct and essential way the iconography of Mary’s Assumption. th  century), in homilies and interpretations of some Church Fathers and Doctors, as John of th  century, associating the triumph of the Virgin