A piece that sparked plenty of controversy, Caravaggio’s “Death of the Virgin” was frowned upon by the Church due to his “undignified” portrayal of our Blessed Mother, using a common woman to portray her. This was also one of the last paintings to portray the death of the Virgin Mary, completed before the dogma of the Assumption was formalised.
It should be noted however, that Pope John Paul II declared in 1997 that Mary experienced a natural death prior to her assumption into Heaven. In the Orthodox Church, this event has long been accepted as the traditional account of the end of Our Lady’s earthly life, referred to as ‘the dormition of the Virgin”.
