The Consecration of the Sistine Chapel

Anonymous Drawing of the Assumption of the Virgin by Perugino

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August 15th is the Feast of the Assumption. On this day in 1483 Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471-84) celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, which he dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. 

The Assumption was, needless to say, the subject of the altarpiece, which was painted by Pietro Perugino. The painting was later destroyed when Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgement was painted, but a drawing of it, thought to be the work of one of Perugino's pupils, survives.

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