The Dormition of the Virgin Mary
Limoges, 1200-1220
Gilded copper, champlevé enamel
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Mary is attended by the twelve apostles, who are not distinguished from one another iconographically except for the fourth apostle from the left, who may be identified as St. John the Evangelist because he has no beard.
Missing from the traditional Dormition scene are Mary's soul and her son.
Funeral liturgy is signified by the censers hanging from the angels' hands, the candles held by two of the apostles, and possibly the book in the hand of the third apostle from the left.
The inscription at the top reads "REGINA MUNDI DE TERRIS ET DE". This appears to be a quote from a letter of St. Jerome on the Assumption: Regina mundi hodie de terris et de praesenti saeculo nequam eripitur, "Today the Queen of the world and of the earth is taken away from the present unworthy age" (Migne XXX, 126). The line appears to be the source of a hymn for the Feast of the Assumption, Regina mundi hodie de saeculo nequam eripitur.1
Read more about images of the Dormition.
Source: Insecula