The body of the Virgin Mary lies on its bier, surrounded by the Disciples. Sprawled in front is a Pharisee who (according to the Apocrypha) tried to tip the body from the bier, only for his hand to petrify and break off at the wrist. In the crypt below, the Virgin’s body is laid to rest, while above she ascends to heaven. The sheet is unusual among Passerotti’s drawings in being apparently a modello (squared for transfer) for an altarpiece, rather than a piece of independent bravura penmanship.
 
Though the subject is related to the artist’s Assumption of around 1570 in Sant’Angela Merici (formerly Sant’Afra), Brescia, there is no significant compositional similarity to that painting. A possible connection has been made instead with a project for the high altarpiece of the Duomo in Cremona (A. Ghirardi, 'Microstorie emiliane tra commitenza, iconografia, devozione', in La pittura in Emilia e in Romagna, 1995, pp. 278-300). Bernardino Gatti’s painting of the Assumption for that site was incomplete at his death in 1576, and the officers of the Duomo sought another artist to complete the work. Orazio Samacchini was first offered the contract, but he too died the following year, and in the absence of any other artist in Cremona considered suitable, the unfinished panel was sent to Bologna.

In July 1577 the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, proposed Prospero Fontana for the commission, and a month later Passerotti sent two drawings to the officers of the Duomo for consideration - one a copy of Gatti’s composition, the other his own invention - and offered to take on the project. Noting that this drawing may be dated around this span of years and has approximately the same proportions as Gatti’s altarpiece, Ghirardi suggested that this might have been Passerotti’s alternative design. But Passerotti failed to interest the fabbricieri in his proposal, for the following month they were seeking information about Federico Barocci. Gatti’s altarpiece was never completed, and was installed, unfinished, in the Duomo of Cremona, where it remains.

The architecture resembles that in Passerotti’s altarpiece of the Madonna enthroned with saints in San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna (commissioned in 1564), with a raised central platform before a vaulted recess, the lunette of which is pierced by an oculus. At the top of the sheet the Madonna’s tiny soul is carried to heaven by angels - an uncommon iconography, for it is normally her material body that is seen ascending to leave an empty tomb.

Inscribed at lower right in red ink: 'B. passerotto', and on the verso (laid down), in the hand of William Gibson: 'Bartolomeo Passerotto 6.3.'