Onofri was a pupil in Rome of Gaspard Dughet, whose style he imitated with great success. In 1689 he moved to Florence to work for prince Ferdinando de' Medici. The scene shows the moment in Ovid's Metamorphoses VI when Apollo and Diana slay all of Niobe's fourteen children to avenge their mother Leto, to whom Niobe has declared herself superior on account of her fecundity.
