This fresco fragment, depicting Christ surrounded by angels ascending into heaven, once formed the upper part of a lunette depicting the Ascension of Christ. It was originally in the Oratory of Santa Maria della Passione, next to San Ambrogio, Milan. Painted in the style of the Milanese painter and draughtsman Bernardino Luini (born ca 1480–85; died before 1 July 1532) it probably dates to the second quarter of the sixteenth century.

The Oratory of Santa Maria della Passione was sold to the Administration of San Ambrogio in 1812 and turned into a cloth factory. In 1869 it passed into private ownership and it was at this time that the main scenes of the wall decoration were detached. Part of the series re-appeared in England in 1898 when a group of nine fragments were sold through Fosters' sales rooms. Three of these were purchased by the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum.