Ascension of Jesus to facilitate the obligation to attend Mass. Saint Jerome held that it was of Apostolic origin, but in fact the ascension was originally part of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit), and developed as a separate celebration only slowly from the late 4th century onward. In the Catholic tradition it begins with a three-day "rogation" to ask for God's mercy, and the feast itself includes a procession of torches and banners symbolising Christ's journey to the Mount of Olives and entry into heaven, the extinguishing of the Paschal candle, and an all-night vigil; white is the liturgical colour. The
Ascension of Jesus in Christian art the procession on the feast of the Ascension. Other scenes with a similar raised figure, that used similar compositions to the Ascension are the Assumption of Mary, rare until the late Middle Ages, the Transfiguration of Jesus, and from the Early Renaissance the Resurrection of Jesus, where he begins to be seen floating clear of the tomb. Perhaps the earliest surviving works to show this iconography of the Resurrection is the well-known fresco by Andrea da Firenze in the Spanish Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, which dates to 1366. Ascension of Jesus in Christian art