|
There is no sarcophagus, in compliance with the Franciscan tradition of the incorruptibility of Mary's body and the corresponding reference to the Immaculate Conception. There are only eleven apostles in the foreground. Thomas, unconvinced as usual, is waiting in the background for the imminent test of the girdle.
It is interesting to compare this orderly composition, with its soft colours and peaceful, fluid lines, to the turbulent intensity of Titian's Assumption in the Frari, painted only a few years later. The comparison suggests the degree to which Palma's art lagged behind the more advanced and experimental developments in Venetian art.
The altarpiece comes from the suppressed church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
| 
