Establishment of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome
by GRÜNEWALD, Matthias, Oil on wood, 179 x 91 cm
The painting was the right panel of the altarpiece in the Abbey Church at Aschaffenburg, near Bad Mergentheim.
According to tradition, Pope Liberius (pope from 352 to 366) and a patrician had the same dream at the same night. The Virgin appeared and expressed her wish to raise a church at the site which she will mark by snow at the middle of the summer. Next day the Esquiline hill was covered by snow and it became the site of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
The altarpiece is called the Altarpiece of the Our Lady of the Snow.