Southern dome with depiction of the Analepsis (sketch)

Black and white reprographic print (original is not preserved)
20.3 cm x 21.15 cm (8 in. x 8 5/16 in.)

The scene of the Analepsis, or Ascension, is set in the southern dome, depicting the moment of Christ’s ascent into heaven after the resurrection. Here, again, the solution adopted for the composition follows the Byzantine iconography: into a halo of trinitarian light held up by two angels, the unarmed and unthreatening Christ is seated on the celestial arch and is escorted into heaven with his court—the Virgin, the Archangels, the Apostles—standing in a circle around him. The pictorial prototype selected for this scene is the late ninth-century mosaic of the dome of the church of Hagia Sophia in Thessalonike.