Our Lady of the Assumption

After the death of the architect and engineer Ascanio Vitozzi, who had been entrusted with completing the church of Santa Maria on the Monte dei Cappuccini, work started up again under Carlo di Castella-monte, who designed the high altar, which was made between 1634 and 1637. The large canvas, which was painted for Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, was later placed on the altar and was used to conceal the statue of the Virgin. It was then lifted up, like a curtain, during religious festivals. The range of col-ours bears evidence of the painter’s apprenticeship in Tuscany, before he was drawn to Rome by Caravaggio’s naturalism, which he later helped introduce to Piedmont.