The Death and Assumption of the Virgin - 2

 

The Departure of Mary's soul from her body
This is a rarely depicted scene in Art. Before the Assumption of the physical body of Mary, a number of texts tell of the departure of Mary's soul, leaving the body behind:

  And when the Lord's day came, at the third hour, just as the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in a cloud, so Christ descended with a multitude of angels, and received the soul of His beloved mother. For there was such splendour and perfume of sweetness, and angels singing the songs of songs, where the Lord says, As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters, that all who were there present fell on their faces, as the apostles fell when Christ transfigured Himself before them on Mount Thabor, and for a whole hour and a half no one was able to rise. But when the light went away, and at the same time with the light itself, the soul of the blessed virgin Mary was taken up into heaven with psalms, and hymns, and songs of songs. And as the cloud went up the whole earth shook, and in one moment all the inhabitants of Jerusalem openly saw the departure of St. Mary. (The Passing of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 7th century, Attrib. Joseph of Arimathea) 



Panel from Beffi Triptych - Follower of Taddeo di Bartolo
Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, L’Aquila

The plot thickens

At this point the various texts become distinctly anti-Semitic in tone.  Previously, we learn that Mary was forbidden by local Jews from making her twice-daily pilgrimage to the tomb of Christ:

The Jews, as soon as the Messiah was dead, closed the tomb, and heaped up large stones against its door; and set watchmen over the tomb and Golgotha, and gave them orders that, if anyone should go and pray by the grave or on Golgotha, he should straightway die.
                                                                                                                              . . . . .
And the watchmen came in and said to the priests, ‘Mary comes in the evening and the morning and prays there.’ And there was a commotion in Jerusalem concerning my Lady Mary; and the priests went to the judge and said to him, ‘My lord, send and order Mary not to go and pray at the grave and Golgotha’.  (The six books - book 2)

Following the death of the Virgin, her cortege is attacked on the way to the tomb:

And, behold, one of them, who was chief of the priests of the Jews in his rank, filled with fury and rage, said to the rest: Behold, the tabernacle of him who disturbed us and all our race, what glory has it received? And going up, he wished to overturn the bier, and throw the body down to the ground. And immediately his hands dried up from his elbows, and stuck to the couch. And when the apostles raised the bier, part of him hung, and part of him adhered to the couch; and he was vehemently tormented with pain, while the apostles were walking and singing. And the angels who were in the clouds smote the people with blindness. Melito of Sardis, The Passing of Blessed Mary.

  In Duccio's picture we see the haloed apostles, and the non-haloed Jews behind.  The chief priest, whom John the Scholar names as Jephonias, is just about to touch the bier despite Peter telling him that it would be a really bad idea. 


Duccio: The Maesta. 

This anonymous fresco from the church of S. Maria Assunta in Trevignano shows, rather graphically, what happens next.



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