Fontana completed the 'Assumption of the Virgin' altarpiece for Ponte Santo near Imola — cited as the first altarpiece commissioned from a woman artist.
In the early 1580s, culminating around 1584, Lavinia Fontana completed the large altarpiece 'Assumption of the Virgin' for the church at Ponte Santo, near Imola, on formal commission from ecclesiastical patrons. Scholars identify this as the first altarpiece produced on commission by a woman artist and one of the earliest monumental public figure paintings executed by a woman in Western art history.
Altarpieces were among the most prestigious and demanding commissions available to painters of the era: they required mastery of large-scale composition, multiple figures, complex iconography, and public accountability, since they would be permanently displayed in sacred spaces for congregations and clergy to scrutinize. That such a commission was entrusted to a woman — and executed successfully enough to lead to further ecclesiastical commissions — represented a significant breach of the assumption that only men possessed the technical and intellectual capacity for monumental religious painting.
The success of this altarpiece helped establish Fontana's reputation beyond portraiture and small devotional works, positioning her to receive further major religious commissions throughout Bologna and, eventually, Rome. It stands as a pivotal early proof that a woman could execute public, large-scale sacred art at the same level of ambition and authority as her male contemporaries, directly challenging the era's assumptions about women's artistic capabilities.