This is one of those paintings that you just have to experience in person. No mere photograph is ever going to do it justice. You turn the corner from a room full of 18th century religious art and find yourself looking through a doorway with the long view that I’ve presented one of the photos above of this absolutely magnificent piece of stunning beauty. I was dumbfounded the first time I saw it, and it always makes me giddily happy to see it when I turn that corner. It isn’t a particularly overwhelming subject (in fact, if you asked most art historians, they would poo-poo it and roll their eyes at it as a bit of play-acting attempting art), nor a particularly effective execution of the subject itself (if you look closely in the detail shots, you can see that the statues are rendered rather poorly, and the bones in the sand are out of proportion, etc.), however, the overall effect is stunning. When the sun is shining and the light comes in just so from the outer galleries, it causes the frame to catch the light, which illuminates the sunset even more, giving it almost an ethereal glow.
Good thing I didn’t go to school for this shit, right? I just make it up as I go along!