Perhaps the most famous painting of the Assumption is Titian’s Assunta (1516-18). Painted almost 500 years before Pius XII declared the infallible dogma of the Assumption on November 1, 1950. The long-standing tradition of the Church, both East and West, was that  when Mary came to the end of her life she was taken into heaven. In the East, they called this the Dormition or “falling asleep” of Mary. In the West, it was referred to as the Assumptio or being “taken-up.”
 
In Pius XII’s Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, he declared the following:
 
By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
 
Interestingly, this was only the 2nd of two papal  dogmas both of which deal with the Blessed Virgin, the first being the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

By 1950 when the Assumption was declared a dogma, we were still digging out from the horrors of World War II. The atrocities seemed endless, and we were living in a cold war within an “atomic age.” Inconceivable possibilities now seemed possible, and we realized more than ever “man’s inhumanity to man.”
 
Nov. 1, 1950 the Catholic Church experienced the brilliant workings of the Holy Spirit holding up the truth and beauty of human life in the face of evil forces that would seek to destroy and diminish the great dignity we all have received through Christ. He is God made flesh, and she who gave her life to make this possible was not only preserved from sin for his conception, but is preserved from the decay of death at the ending of her earthly life. She is the truest of disciples following her Son in the Resurrection of the Body.
 
In our age, Our Lady speaks again of the dignity and beauty of all human life from the womb to the tomb. Her life is a celebration of the mystery of Redemption. In the face of all those forces which would degrade, diminish or destroy human life, she is a sign of hope. She is not only his mother, but our mother as well. Mary, full of grace! Be with us now and at the hour of our death!