Assumption of the Virgin

Maulbertsch’s spontaneous expressivity is demonstrated in the oil sketch of the Assumption of the Virgin – a sketch for the altar painting in the Cistercian Abbey of Zirc, in western Hungary, inspired by Piazetta’s leaf for the high altar of the Church of the Teutonic Order in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen (1735), now in the Louvre. With fleeting, expressive brushstrokes, the artist has captured powerful, gesturing figures whose sedulous activity is very different from that of Altomonte’s version. (Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Inv.-no. 388)

DUCKE Astrid: Maulbertsch Franz Anton, Assumption of the Virgin, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, p. 102