From an altar in the transept of the Cathedral of Funchal that belonged to the Confraternity of the Ascension, founded in 1572. The altar has since disappeared.
The general palette of the work denounces the values of Mannerism in Portugal, by the existence of light and intense tones, and deep contrasts.
Historian Dagoberto Markl recognises affinities with the panels of the Birth of the Virgin and the Annunciation from the Jeronimos Monastery, today the National Museum of Ancient Art, and further notes evidence of proximity with a drawing from the same Museum.
A curious hypothesis is that the figure of one of the Apostles to the right is a self-portrait of the artist, even by its similarity to a similar figure in a Pentecost scene of the retable of the Cathedral of Portalegre.
José Alberto Seabra de Carvalho presents the painting in Funchal as a forerunner of the drawing of the Museum of Ancient Art. However, there is no consensus among the specialists regarding the date of the painting. Some date it back to the 1570s, and others to the last years of that century, a possibility that is more consensual.
This painting was recently studied by Isabel Santa Clara¹.

¹ Das Coisas visíveis às invisíveis, contributos para o estudo da Pintura Maneirista na Ilha da Madeira (1540-1620), Vol.I e II, Doctoral dissertation in the History of Art of the Modern Era, Universidade da Madeira, 2004.