Jacopo Amigoni

Amigoni likely produced this grand Assumption of the Virgin during the 1720s when working in southern Germany. In addition to easel pictures like the present work, during this period Amigoni executed prestigious palatine and ecclesiastic fresco cycles for the Nymphenburg and Schliessheim palaces of Maximillian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and the Benedictine monastery at Ottobeuren. 

The present work may correspond with a painting once in the collection of François Ignace de Dufresne, the Bavarian Minister of Finance and an avid collector of Amigoni's works. The 1769 sale of Dufresne's collection included a "virgin ascending to heaven. Painted on canvas, marked No. 41."¹ While the present work has been relined and no longer bears an inventory number, the dimensions seem to coincide almost exactly.² 

¹ Lot 220: "vierge monte au ciel. Peinte sur toile, marquée du No. 41." In Verzeichnis der verkauften Gemälde im deutschsprachigen Raum vor 1800, T. Ketelsen and T. von Stockhausen (eds.), Munich 2002, p. 177.

² Assuming the dimensions are in French pounces—the catalogue is in French though the auction was held in Munich—the measurements would be 129.9 by 79.8 centimeters.