The work dates to the same period as Savoldo's Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Castelbarco Albani collection, Milan), also produced for San Domenico.

[1] In 1524 the Dominicans of the San Domenico Monastery in Pesaro commissioned a large altarpiece for the high altar from Savoldo, who had settled in Venice a few years earlier.

[citation needed] An inscription on the obverse records the central panel being "raised" in 1797 and when the monastery was suppressed in 1808 the French authorities had the work sent to Brera.

If in the lower half a natural light diffuses, the upper one is dominated by the dazzling luminous cloud behind Maria, made of seraphs in flight, citing Titian's altarpiece of the Assumption.

In the drapery of the characters the artist used his particular way of making them heavy and shiny like velvet, with strong silver reflections given by dense and full-bodied brushstrokes.