As Bernard Aikema noted, when he first published this drawing in 1996, it is "of exceptional importance as it seems to be the earliest known drawing by Giambattista that is preparatory for a painting," leading George Knox to describe it in his review of Aikema's exhibition as "the most sensational new work in the catalogue."

The painting (fig. 1) for which this is the compositional study, executed by Giambattista in 1716 in the old parish church at Biadene, near Treviso, is also a milestone in the young artist's budding career, as his very first work in fresco, the medium of which he was to become one of the greatest exponents. At this date, Giambattista, just twenty years of age, was already well established as an independent painter, but was still somewhat indebted to the training he had received under the then famous but now little-known Venetian painter, Gregorio Lazzarini, who surely taught him the art of fresco painting.