JACOPO DI CIONE
(b. ca. 1325, Firenze, d. ca. 1399, Firenze)

San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece: The Ascension

1370-71
Egg tempera on wood, 96 x 49 cm
National Gallery, London

The panel representing The Ascension is one of the six upper tier panels of the altarpiece. Christ ascends into Heaven accompanied by music-making angels who are playing, on the left, a portative organ and a lute, and on the right a fiddle and a psaltery. This type of standing Christ in the Ascension may derive from the frescoes in the Spanish Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence by Andrea da Firenze.