Assumption of the Virgin

Philippe de Champaigne painted this Assumption of the Virgin around 1650, during a period when he served as painter to both the French court and the Jansenist community at Port-Royal. His religious works balanced the grandeur demanded by Catholic doctrine with the austere spirituality favored by the Jansenists. The Assumption was a subject of particular theological importance, as it had long been a matter of doctrinal debate before being formally defined as dogma in 1950.

Champaigne's treatment combines the monumental composition of Italian Baroque altar painting with a cooler, more restrained French palette. The upward movement of the Virgin is rendered with classical clarity rather than the dynamic turbulence typical of Roman Baroque.