Painting on wood, Byzantine, 14th century
State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
After A. V. Bank, Vizantiiskoe iskusstvo v sobraniakh Sovetskogo Soiuza (Leningrad, 1966), fig. 258

The solemnity of the scene is conveyed through the sad facial expressions of apostles, bishops, and angels, and through the intensity of colors. The elongated figure of the Virgin is dressed in a dark green dress and a purple maphorion. She is lying on a funeral bier covered with bright red cloth. Christ, depicted in a round mandorla painted in green and blue, turns to Mary’s body. In addition to the figures of apostles, bishops, and women mourners, the artist includes a choir of angels behind the mandorla.