The Deathbed Experience - Icons as Mental Images Preparations for a Good Death in Late Medieval Kotor (Montenegro)

The paper examines the mentioned icons in the testaments of Kotor citizens from partially explored archival documentary sources from the 14^th and 15^th centuries. The bequest of paintings within the testaments scheme in which individual item bequests ad pias causas dominate is an exceptionally developed element of the concept of preparing for a good death. The icons primarily become mental images which the dying retain in their consciousness, which designate hope and faith in the support of the Madonna and the saint protectors for the salvation of the soul. Analysed in this context, the icons to which there were only written references, became the framework for the analysis of personal religious preoccupations on the one hand, and foundations for researching the adopting of religious trends on the other.