Titian, Assumption of the Virgin

Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin is over 20 feet high, but it seems even larger because of his treatment of the figures, who are heroic in both proportion and deportment. This grand picture competes successfully with the vast Gothic interior of the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, on whose high altar it still stands.

Titian imagined the moment of the Assumption – the physical ascent into heaven of the Virgin’s body miraculously reunited with her soul after burial – as a scene of cosmic jubilation. The foreground is filled with sturdy apostles who gesticulate wildly. Their movements converge to form a triangle and the Virgin ascends from its apex on a curving cloud populated by putti. In the midst of this throng, the dramatically twisting Mary surges upward as her mantle billows about her, creating more diagonals and triangles. Even God the Father floats diagonally toward us in space. To anyone who has seen the painting in situ the color is unforgettable. Perhaps the necessity for broad effects that would be visible from a distance persuaded Titian to restrict himself to a few dominant hues – reds, blues, and greens in the garments of the apostles and the traditional blue and red for Mary’s mantle and tunic, set off against a limpid blue sky below and the golden glow of heaven above.^[1]