The original, on panel, 214 x 85 cm, is the centrepiece of a polyptych in the Church of Santa Maria Formosa, Venice (see P. Rylands, Palma Vecchio, 1988, pp. 213/14, no. 70, with ill.). The artist received the commission for this altarpiece from the Scuola of the Bombardiers, which was founded in 1500 and whose patron saint was Saint Barbara. They had been granted use of the altar of Santa Maria in the south transept of the church in 1509. No documents relating to the commission have survived but on stilistic ground Rylands dates the polyptych towards the early 1520's (see Rylands, op.cit., p. 55/56).

The artist was a resident of Venice, as is shown by his visiting card which is attached to the stretcher. It is recorded that he participated in xhibitions in Rome and Venice between 1883 and 1887 (see E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres etc., 1976, II, p. 164)

See colour illustration