This painting, executed towards the end of Ricci's stay in London, around 1714-16, is one of two modelli (oil sketches) for the fresco in the apse of the chapel of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Some of the elements in this sketch and in the final painting seem to reference motifs by Paolo Veronese (the angels lifting the grave's lid), Annibale Carracci (the soldiers, the grave and the lantern) and Salvator Rosa (the cliffs in the background and the soldiers).