CARAVAGGIO
(b. 1571, Caravaggio, d. 1610, Porto Ercole)

The Death of the Virgin (detail)

1602-06
Oil on canvas, width of detail: 97 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Mary lies as though suspended on the coffin. In the foreground Mary Magdalene is lamenting, drained of emotion and without any hope of redemption.

It was pointed out that the artist has not made a representation of death, but has shown a real death. Thus the painting offends the sensibility not only of its own time, but of all times, because of what it suggest about the obscure, fearful meaning of the end of life.