Like many of his contemporaries, Sebastiano Ricci spent a large part of his life in travelling about Europe, painting works commissioned by secular and ecclesiastical authorities. After studying in Venice Ricci worked in Bologna, Parma and Rome, Milan and Florence, and was invited to the Imperial court in Vienna, where he worked on the Schönbrunn Palace. In 1712 he went to England where he decorated Chelsea Hospital Chapel and began work on Burlington House. The latter was finished by Kent when in 1716, reputedly angered at failing to obtain the commissions for decorating St Paul's Cathedral and Hampton Court, Ricci returned to Venice. He worked there for the rest of his life, embellishing the churches, religious houses and villas of the city and surrounding countryside with lavish works in gay colours.The Assumption is one of Ricci's latest works, painted shortly before his death in 1734 for the Karlskirche, the most beautiful Baroque church in Vienna. The sketch for this composition, also acquired by the Budapest Museum, is an exquisite and poetic work, delicately executed with light strokes of the brush.