ANDREA DEL SARTO
(b. 1486, Firenze, d. 1530, Firenze)

Assumption of the Virgin

1529
Oil on wood, 239 x 209 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Vasari records this as being executed around 1529 for Bartolommeo Panciatichi the Elder. Andrea began it and carried it out almost to the end, but because the panel split several times as the work was begun and then suspended, the picture remained not entirely finished at his death.

In this immense panel we have one of the most important work of Andrea (who is there represented in the person of the Apostle seen from the back, half-turned towards the spectator) on account of the fine composition divided between earth and sky, the figure of the standing Apostle serving as link between these parts.