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This many-panelled altarpiece, or polyptych, was painted by Crivelli in 1476 to sit on the high altar of the church of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno, east central Italy. The polyptych was composed of the central panel and eight smaller panels with saints, also in the Gallery. Originally there was a predella (a lower section of the altarpiece), now lost, and a lunette-shaped Lamentation above (now in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).
When acquired by the Gallery, the altarpiece had a third tier of smaller saints, now acknowledged as part of a separate polyptych from the same church. The entire complex has been known as 'The Demidoff Altarpiece' since it was framed as one polyptych when in Prince Anatole Demidoff's collection in the 19th century.
