This sculptural group, now reconstructed using original marbles and historical plaster casts, depicts the so-called Dormitio Virginis, or the Death of the Virgin Mary among the Apostles. Created by Arnolfo di Cambio between 1300 and 1310, it originally adorned the right portal of the first façade, forming part of the decorative cycle dedicated to the Madonna, the patroness of the new Cathedral. This cycle extended across all three entrances of the medieval architectural front.

The sculptures, removed when the façade was demolished in 1587, met different fates. The figure of the Virgin, the grieving Apostle at her feet, and the two sorrowful Apostle heads—now replaced here by casts—are today housed in the Bode Museum in Berlin, where they bear damage from one of the fires that struck the Flakturm Friedrichshain in 1945. The fragments seen here include the original heads of Christ receiving Mary's animula (her soul in the form of a child) and the strikingly expressive figure of the sorrowful Saint Andrew, acquired in 2015 from a private Florentine collection.

The group is designed to be viewed from below and is characterized by a strong sculptural presence conveyed through simplified forms, combined with extraordinary naturalism and intense psychological expressionism in the figures’ poses and facial expressions.

In the central high relief, Mary is depicted lying down, veiled, her face serene—evoking sleep rather than death. This contrasts with the profound anguish of the young, curly-haired Apostle who throws himself at her feet in grief. In front of her, a mature Apostle with a beard and long hair, dressed in an ancient style, moves forward, twisting his body in sorrow, his gaze lost in mourning as he looks outward. Above and behind them, two Apostles—one bearded and elderly—express their grief, despite the incomplete state of the sculpture. To the side, the solemn head of Christ receives a newborn: it is Mary's animula, her soul being welcomed into heaven.