Details competition

Tom Lubbock
Saturday 28 August 1999 18:02 EDT
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In which picture by which painter can you find this row?

Answers on a postcard, to arrive by Friday 3 September: DETAILS 448, IoS, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL. Three winners will each receive a bottle of champagne

Details 446 came from Titian's The Assumption of the Virgin (1516- 18). The clue appeared on 15 August, the day of the Feast of the Assumption. The legend that the Virgin Mary, having died, was taken up bodily into heaven, is traditional. Not until 1950 was it defined (infallibly) by Pope Pius XII as a dogma of the Catholic Church. Robert Lowell wrote in his poem "Crossing the Alps":

"When the Vatican made Mary's Assumption dogma

the crowds at San Pietro screamed Papa

The Holy Father dropped his shaving glass,

and listened. His electric razor purred,

his pet canary chirped on his left hand.

The lights of science couldn't hold a candle

to Mary risen - at one miraculous stroke,

angel-wing'd, gorgeous as a jungle bird.

But who believed it...?"

The picture is in the church of Santa Maria dei Frari, Venice.

The first three correct entries came from: A Royle, Kendal; J Church, Winchester; and L Harris, Wednesfield

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