A modello of the fresco The Sacrifice of Aaron in San Marco, Rome, the church of the Venetians, commissioned by the Venetian Ambassador Nicolò Sagredo during his residence in Rome between 1651 and 1656. In 1653 he initiated a programme of embellishments of the church, and commissioned Cortese to paint six wall decorations including frescoes of Aaron offering the Sacrifice and Aaron receiving Manna for the chapel of the Holy Sacrament. The project was Cortese's first official commission, and the importance he attached to it is reflected in the large number of preparatory drawings.

The iconographic programme was determined by the fact that the story of Aaron, the first of the Old Testament High Priests, was regarded as a prefigurement of the ministry of Christ. The present drawing is a modello for the fresco on the left of the chapel, and as Madame Monbeig-Goguel has suggested, may have been submitted for the final approval of the patron. A drawing in Düsseldorf immediately predates this modello. The fresco differs from this drawing in minor details, C. Monbeig-Goguel, op. cit., fig. 3. In addition to the preparatory drawing for the fresco listed by Madame Monbeig-Goguel, a red chalk study of the men holding a lamb in the foreground was offered at Christie's, Monaco, 22 June 1991, lot 4