8692.
Hood of a Cope, silk damask, red and yellow, with the subject of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary woven in it. Florentine, late 15th century. 1 foot 5 inches by 1 foot 4½ inches.
Uprising from her grave, and amid rays of glory and an oblong or elliptic aureole, the Virgin Mary is being wafted to heaven by four angels, who are not, as of yore, vested in long close albs like deacons, but in flowing garments so slit up as to show their naked arms, bare legs, and lower thighs. Upon the empty tomb, from out of which are springing up lilies, is written “Assunta est;” and at one corner kneels the apostle St. Thomas who, with head uplifted and both his arms outstretched, is receiving from the mother of our Lord her girdle, which she is holding in her hands and about to let drop down to him. “La Madonna della cintola”—this subject—may often be met with in Italian, more especially Florentine, art of the middle ages, and is closely linked with the history of the fine old church of Prato, as we gather from Vasari, in his “Vite dei Pittori,” t. i. p. 279, Firenze, 1846; and the English translation, t. ii. p. 75.