Vitzthum identified this drawing as a preparatory study for the stucco medallion in the centre of the Galleria di Ercole, Villa Doria-Pamphili, outside the Porta San Pancranzio, Rome. The commission for the design and decoration of the villa was given to Algardi by Pope Innocent X's nephew Camillo Pamphili who was made a cardinal by his uncle but, much to his family's displeasure, renounced his office in January 1647 to marry Olimpia Aldobrandini, the wealthy widow of Paolo Borghese. Construction of the villa was under way by 1645 to designs by Algardi, who owing to his inexperience as an architect may have been aided by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi.

The elevation of the villa is undistinguished as the walls serve simply as a background to the numerous antique reliefs and sarcophagus fronts adorning the exterior. The elegant design of the ground floor with its central rotunda flanked by a long gallery on either side has always been credited to Algardi. The decorative programme of the interior celebrated the ancestry and antiquity of the patron's family. The theme of the shorter gallery to the right of the rotunda is the Story of Hercules and of the gallery to the left, Roman Customs.

The stucchi of the Galleria di Ercole were executed by Rocco Bolla and Giovanni Maria Sorisi. Apart from the present drawing, only three preparatory drawings related to the gallery survive: The Choice of Hercules in Haarlem, Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds and Hercules rising from the Pyre in the British Museum, J. Montagu, op. cit., figs. 104, 110 and 105. A number of the stucchi are inspired by crystals from a casket by Annibale Fontana which the young Algardi probably copied in Mantua