The Story
The Assumption of the Virgin is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Annibale Carracci which was completed in 1587 and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The same subject was depicted by Carracci on the altarpiece of the famous Cerasi Chapel in Rome.
Created in 1609 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Annibale Carracci worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 46 3/8 x 55 5/8 in. (117.8 x 141.3 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Annibale Carracci builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
