Possibly a stage design for the Teatro Nuovo in Trieste. Four designs in bodycolor by Bison for Mozart's opera Don Giovanni were exhibited in 1937 in the Ca'Rezzonico in Venice, nos. 15-18, fig. 18. That for the last scene, Don Giovanni in Inferno, is similar in composition to the present one: the scene depicts a cave lit from the back, with the Don in the foreground attacked by three flying monsters. The present composition is set in a cave infested with snakes, in the foreground is Harlequin escaping from the gaze of Pluto and Cerberus.
Bison arrived in Trieste at the beginning of the 19th Century and left in 1831. Trieste was then a rich city and an important centre for the arts, partly because it was united with the Veneto under Austrian rule. The fashion for neoclassicism was imported from Milan and its influence on Trieste can be seen in many buildings and other projects.