KOIMESIS. - It is a simultaneous representation of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Assumption into Heaven, established in Byzantine art. It depicts the Madonna lying down and asleep on a low bed with her hands crossed on her chest; behind the bed stands Christ with the soul of Mary in his arms, represented as a small child who will be entrusted to the angels, who are in heaven to receive her; the Apostles, divided into two groups, stand at the two ends of the Virgin’s deathbed.
A fine Byzantine example of the K. (perhaps from the 12th century) survives on an ivory book cover, now in the Ravenna Museum. A typical Byzantine depiction of the K. may also be seen in a mosaic of 1143 in the church of La Martorana in Palermo, where a golden background sets off the scene with its inscription naming II. Western European art began to depict the K. in the 12th century, as shown by a German miniature in a manuscript once in the Royal Library in Munich (reproduced by A. Venturi, see bibliography, p. 387). In Rome there are two museum representations of the K. dating from the late 13th century: one by Pietro Cavallini of 1290 in S. Maria in Trastevere, which closely follows the Byzantine model; the second by Jacopo Torriti of 1296 in S. Maria Maggiore, already announcing the distinctive interpretation of the subject that would gradually develop in Italian art, transforming the K. into a simple depiction of the Dormition or death of Mary. To illustrate the successive phases of the iconographic development of the Dormition of the Virgin in Italian art, one may cite for the 14th century a panel of c. 1370 attributed to Andrea da Bologna in the Pinacoteca of Ancona, and another by Spinello Aretino in the Pinacoteca of Siena. Depictions of the Dormition from the first half of the 15th century, though highly individualized, still adhere to the concept of the K., as seen in the frescoes by Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo Comunale in Siena and by Ottaviano Nelli in the Trinci Chapel in Foligno. The same is true of the painting by Fra Angelico representing the Dormition in a predella now in the Museum of S. Marco in Florence, where for the last time Christ is shown with the soul of Mary in his arms. Depictions from the second half of the 15th century usually show, above the scene of Mary’s death surrounded by the Apostles, her Assumption into Heaven; a fine example, in its simple sincerity, is a panel in the Palazzo Comunale in Fabriano by the local painter Antonio; a grand representation of this type is frescoed by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the main chapel of S. Maria Novella in Florence. The K., simplified into a depiction of the death of Mary, appears in the frescoes by Fra Filippo Lippi of 1457–65 in the cathedral of Spoleto, where Christ no longer carries the soul of his Mother to heaven. In early Baroque art, the Death of the Virgin in the Louvre Museum, painted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in 1606, is noteworthy. - See plate XLVI.