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Assumption of the Virgin (after Giuseppe Passeri)
Assumption of the Virgin (after Giuseppe Passeri)
Assumption of the Virgin (after Giuseppe Passeri)

Assumption of the Virgin (after Giuseppe Passeri)

Maker (French, 1734-1817)
After (Italian, 1654-1714)
Date1763
MediumEtching in black and aquatint in red-brown with engraved inscription in red-brown on off-white laid paper
Dimensions13 15/16 x 11 5/16 in. (35.4 x 28.8 cm)
Plate: 11-3/4 x 9-5/16 in. (29.9 x 23.7 cm)
Credit LineUniversity Transfer from Max Epstein Archive
Collections
Object number1976.145.290
Status
On view
Description
Charpentier’s eighteenth-century etching adapts the popular Renaissance subject of the Assumption of the Virgin. The composition, in which the central figure of the Virgin ascends to Heaven surrounded by angels, respects familiar Renaissance visual conventions. However, Charpentier’s version of the scene emphasizes the Madonna’s weight, unlike Renaissance depictions in which holiness connotes weightlessness. The Virgin’s mass imprints itself deeply on the large cloud she sits on, as though it were a beanbag. The taut cloud registers as heavy and cumbersome to the angel in the foreground, who struggles to hold it up. His large wings are not outstretched, as though ineffective to help him in his task. The Virgin is illustrated as a solid corporeal presence that renders her as more human than divine, yet celebrates the triumph of her virtuous humanity through the laborious struggle of the ascent.
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