The drawing is comparable with the brush drawings of Gionima, such as that at Madrid, M. Mena Marqués, Dibujos Italianos del Siglo XVIII y del Siglo XIX, Madrid, 1990, pl. 152. Queen Tomyris, according to Herodotus (I, 214), defeated Cyrus the Great in battle and to revenge the death of her son cut off his head and dipped it in blood. In medieval art, later revived in the 17th Century by the Jesuits, Tomyris was seen as a prefiguration of the Virgin's victory over Satan